• Tweeter

  • republish

This passenger reached in vain his regional train station Nice, October 18, 2019. REUTERS / Eric Gaillard

This Saturday, October 19, the first day of school holidays of All Saints in France, rail transport remains very disturbed, according to the SNCF. Disruptions due to the surprise strike of October 17, drivers and controllers decided to exercise their "right of withdrawal" after an accident that caused several injuries on Wednesday at a railway crossing, including a train driver. The Secretary of State for Transport condemns this "surprise strike". But what is the "right of withdrawal"?

Introduced in the Labor Code in 1982, the "right of withdrawal" allows an employee to suspend his activity if he considers that the situation in which he works endangers his life or his health. The withdrawal of the employee from a dangerous situation is in fact subject to no specific conditions.

The management of the SNCF denounces an irregular strike

But, in the case of the current situation on the rail network in October 2019, the SNCF management denounces an irregular strike and plans to lodge a complaint. The carrier , which does not call into question the right to strike, would have preferred to be warned by a notice of the unions , which would have allowed him to organize for this weekend of great affluence.

The 1982 Act does not provide for punishment or withholding of wages from workers, let alone a criminal conviction, unless the courts conclude that the conditions of the right of withdrawal are not met.

" Eleven wounded " in the Ardennes

This work stoppage, says AFP, follows an accident that occurred on Wednesday evening, October 17: a TER connecting Charleville-Mézières to Reims hit an exceptional road convoy stuck on a level crossing in Saint-Pierre-sur- Vence (Ardennes). The prefecture of the Ardennes indicates that there were " eleven wounded " some of whom were hospitalized. The driver, wounded and shocked, " had to rescue the passengers because it was the only SNCF agent on board! ", Lamented the union SUD-Rail in a statement.

► ALSO READ: Pension reform: the SNCF announces a day of strike on Tuesday