Overtime: why 33 police officers appeal to the Council of State?

William Molinié 12:19 p.m., February 14, 2022

NEWS EUROPE 1

Many times pinned down for its Kafkaesque management of overtime, Place Beauvau once again finds itself entangled in this administrative labyrinth.

While the stock of overtime in the police was estimated at more than 24 million hours, according to a 2019 report by the Court of Auditors, the police officers of the protection service (SDLP) accumulate to date, according to our information, about 4 million hours.

It is the service which, in proportion to the number of staff, garners the most overtime within the national police.

A necessity, say the executives of the national police, linked to their very particular mission.

These agents, around 600, are experts in close protection and must follow threatened personalities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This ranges from investigating judges in charge of extremely sensitive cases, the protection of members of the government or foreign heads of state passing through France, to more specific missions linked to current events.

Internal reorganizations in recent years – one week worked, one week off – have not made it possible to curb the overtime counter, which has thus exploded.

2022: annus horribilis for the SDLP

As of March 4 and the filing of candidacies for the presidential election, aspirants to the Elysée will benefit from close protection according to the level of threat weighing on their shoulder after an assessment carried out by the coordination unit of the fight against terrorism (Uclat) under the aegis of the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI).

A new charge which will be added to that, more punctual, of the events of the French presidency of the European Union (PFUE).

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It is in this context that 113 of these police officers, whose work is regularly and publicly thanked by the personalities who benefit from their service, appealed to the police hierarchy a few months ago.

A request that remained a dead letter.

According to our information, 33 police officers continued the action before the administrative courts.

They filed an appeal before the Council of State on December 21, which to our knowledge has not yet been heard.

Inability to serve these overtime hours

These police officers are calling for the cancellation of an instruction of July 9, 2021 relating to "a campaign for compensation for overtime".

Clearly, the administration imposed on them the payment of their overtime on a ceiling four times higher than the threshold of other personnel of the national police.

“All of this has had disastrous tax consequences,” regrets Me Patrick Chabrun, the lawyer who is bringing the case before the Council of State.

Some have, for example, seen their reference tax income explode, thus closing their rights to benefit from allowances or social assistance such as the price of leisure centres, the canteen, social rents... "We are talking here about civil servants who have a great seniority and who have therefore shown great availability and adaptability for the benefit of the service. It is very surprising that the hierarchy was not aware of the consequences of this instruction on the fate of each of them. C is perceived as a lack of consideration for their work", continues Me Chabrun.

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According to our information, some agents sometimes accumulate more than 15,000 overtime hours in their counter, the equivalent of several years of work.

Beyond the specific case of this service, this appeal to the highest administrative justice shows the inability, so far, of Place Beauvau to resolve this issue.

While almost all the ministers who have succeeded in recent years have publicly promised to tackle this problem head on.