Paris (AFP)

Jean-Michel Blanquer accelerates the discussions on pensions: he began receiving Friday union organizations, who claim "concrete" for weeks, before meeting teachers in Nancy alongside Edouard Philippe.

"It was a dense and frank meeting, as we should have had for months, with specific issues on the table" but "we still lack details and we maintain our call for mobilization Tuesday," explained to AFP Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of the SE-Unsa, at the end of a meeting with Jean-Michel Blanquer at the ministry.

The Minister of Education opened Friday the talks with the teachers unions, which will last until next week. "This is a semester of discussions that opens," added Stéphane Crochet, the government has set the summer 2020 as horizon.

According to him, the minister reconfirmed to the union the commitment that the pensions of the teachers "will not fall" and that this "would be registered in the law, with a revaluation of several years, via a law of programming so that it is consolidated" he detailed.

"There is still a lot of work to be done and we have asked that the first amount of the revaluation envelope, as well as the amount of the overall envelope be communicated as soon as possible," said Mr. Crochet.

"From the beginning of January", the minister should give the unions "a simulation about a hundred standard case of future pensions, depending on the different profiles and different categories of teachers."

Last Wednesday, Edouard Philippe assured that the level of pensions of teachers would be "sanctuarized" and that would be committed "before the end of the five-year period the revalorizations necessary to maintain the level of pensions" of teachers.

In the aftermath, Jean-Michel Blanquer on his side guaranteed that the pensions of teachers "will not decline" and that it is an opportunity "to improve the salaries of teachers because there are delays when we compare 'other European countries'.

The minister assured that the most important effort will be on premiums but that the amount and the rate of increase imply "social dialogue".

"The premiums, okay, but they must be granted to all teachers," asks Francette Popineau, Secretary General of Snuipp-FSU, the first union primary.

Faced with a highly mobilized profession, the government has also chosen the ground to renew the dialogue: the Prime Minister and Jean-Michel Blanquer will go to Nancy on Friday evening to meet teachers for an exchange on the reform.

- "The ball in the camp of the ministry" -

According to Stéphane Crochet, the latest government statements have only "increased the feeling of distrust and worry" among teachers.

"But what does it really mean to sanctuarize the level of pensions?" Asks the side of the President of the National Union of High Schools and Colleges (Snalc), Jean-Rémi Girard. "It is necessary to clarify the revaluation of teachers that can not be done with counterparties, we refuse," he said. The Snalc will be received Monday.

Another point of tension, the fact of "rethinking" the teaching profession. Jean-Michel Blanquer has indeed mentioned the "organization of work" teachers, evasively quoting possible counterparts. A theme that is struggling to pass the unions side.

"Discussing the teaching profession is not really the subject of this reform, the subject that follows is that teachers are poorly paid, a point that's all," said Jean-Rémi Girard.

"What worries us is that this reform can be used to rethink our job, and therefore work more without earning more, while for example we are already working 20 days on all of our holidays", adds Francette Popineau, who warns that "the ball is now in the camp of the ministry".

© 2019 AFP