Montauban (AFP)

The 20 Biofusion laboratories in Tarn-et-Garonne, Haute-Garonne and Lot were closed on Tuesday due to a strike by employees protesting in particular against a "Covid premium" deemed insufficient and the movement was renewed for Wednesday, a- we learned from FO.

This is one of the first strike movements in medical biology laboratories since the proliferation of virological tests (PCR) in France, the number of which now exceeds one million per week.

This goal, set by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, is synonymous with assembly line work for laboratories, whose staff tire.

Tuesday morning, some 70 employees of Biofusion, a member company of the Inovie group, gathered in front of a site in Montauban, noted an AFP correspondent.

A delegation was then received by the management but "nothing good came of it and the strike is renewed tomorrow (Wednesday)", according to FO.

The strike slogan was launched by FO, CGT and CFDT.

The company had indicated on its website that it was unable to provide coverage for health checks and Covid-19 screenings on Tuesday, "on all sites and all drives", except one "which operates under requisition of the prefecture, "she said.

CFDT union delegate Catherine Bellenque explained to the press that everything was "starting from the small bonus received as a Covid bonus", it is "the straw that broke the camel's back".

This bonus amounting to 250 euros "is derisory compared to the investment of staff, whether couriers, secretaries, technicians, nurses", she said.

- "fear of physical aggression" -

The unions are asking for the payment of a Covid bonus of 1,000 euros "without attribution conditions" because "we, too, are on the front line".

"We asked for a 10% increase in our salaries as well as an improvement in the quality of life at work because we have a workforce that is always limited. We work overload practically all the time, even outside the Covid period", assured the CFDT delegate.

"Our technical platform is capable of doing 1,500 tests per day and we are at 5,000. Hence the delay and the aggressiveness of patients who worry about not having their results on time. (...) For all secretaries or technicians, it is heavy to carry and very stressful ".

"There is really a fear of physical aggression even if for the moment it remains verbal. The phone calls have been multiplied by 10. People are worried, asking to receive their results. We can't take it anymore. ", insisted the union representative.

The departments of Haute-Garonne and Tarn-et-Garonne are classified in the "red zone" of active circulation of Covid-19.

At the beginning of September, François Blanchecotte, president of the Syndicat des biologistes (SDB), had warned of a risk of "social explosion, if the staff of private laboratories decided to go on strike", recalling that they had obtained nothing at the time. of the Ségur de la santé agreements.

On September 7, around fifty people gathered in front of the Sarthois headquarters of Laborizon laboratories in Le Mans, as part of a strike call to denounce the working conditions of employees.

© 2020 AFP