- More than 200 cases of coronavirus were identified in France on Tuesday.
- Faced with this threat, the RATP indicates that it is monitoring the situation carefully and implementing the government's recommendations on prevention.
- For Unsa, the majority union at RATP, this is not enough. He called for additional measures at the risk of increasing the cases of right of withdrawal.
As coronavirus cases increase in France, concern is mounting on public transport in the Ile-de-France region. This Tuesday morning, fifty members of GPSR, the security service of the RATP, exercised for a few hours its right of withdrawal to obtain hydroalcoholic gel. A situation confirmed by the company, which notes that "it had no impact on traffic".
🚨Right of withdrawal in progress at the RATP Security department
5.15 am and 6 am are entitled to withdraw, ie 13 teams in total 43 agents "
Faced with risk, she ensures that she is "very vigilant as to the evolution of the situation", and "keeps herself alert and able to quickly implement, if necessary, her business continuity plan. The transport company adds that "information is also given regularly to employees" and that it is "in permanent contact with the Ministry of Health and the General Directorate of Health. "And since Tuesday afternoon," the message from the health authorities on the network [is being broadcast] via posters at stations and stations and on the bus and tram network, and via audio messages ".
The risk of an increase in withdrawal rights
For Laurent Djebali, secretary general of Unsa RATP, this is not enough. "Today, the RATP follows the recommendations of the government but does not go any further, and this feeling that it gives is a feeling that does not reassure the employees," he explains. At Unsa [majority], we asked to go a little further, in particular to obtain disposable gloves, wipes and masks in order to intervene in degraded situations such as travel discomfort. "Laurent Djebali also calls for an adaptation of the transport plan because there are today" large stations which welcome much more than 5,000 people, as in Saint-Lazare or Châtelet ".
Our file on the coronavirus
On Monday, the union filed a request with the C2SCT (Health, Safety and Working Conditions Commission) and awaits responses from management, which will reassure employees. "We know that it is not yet the pandemic but we do not want to wait for the pandemic to prepare, we want to feel close to us a concerned company, close to its employees," says Laurent Djebali. Otherwise, "we will file a right of alert and the agents will decide, we are not in their place, but I really think that the rights of withdrawal will multiply. The trade unionist notes that on Monday, two employees on line 13 and one on line 11, exercised their right of withdrawal.
As for the RATP, we recall that "to exercise your right of withdrawal, you need a serious and imminent danger". However "as soon as the employer respects the instructions of the government, the scope of the right of withdrawal is very reduced", indicates the company. Finally, as part of a possible transition to stage 3 of the epidemic, the Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari considered "restrictions" in public transport. However, the company does not know at the moment if this transition to stage 3 will have an impact on traffic, awaiting the measures of the public authorities.
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And for Ile-de-France?
Just like at RATP, at Ile-de-France Mobilités, "we are attentive to developments in the situation in connection with health authorities, transport companies". Today, there are "no traffic restrictions requested by the state". IdF-Mobilités also specifies “relaying the instructions of the health authorities on prevention measures, on barrier gestures, in stations, stations and train screens. "Furthermore, on Tuesday," on all the lines of the outer ring, about 10% of employees have exercised their right of withdrawal ".
- RATP
- coronavirus
- Paris
- Unsa