Europe 1 with AFP 3:25 p.m., May 17, 2022
A coalition of eight public service unions challenged Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Tuesday in an open letter.
The demands of the unions relate in particular to purchasing power, positioning themselves against the decline in the retirement age and for a salary increase.
A broad coalition of public service unions on Tuesday challenged the new Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne in an open letter, calling on her to increase salaries and to abandon the increase in the legal retirement age.
"At the very beginning of the five-year term, our trade union organizations CFE CGC, CFTC, CGT, FA, FO State, FSU, Solidaires and UNSA of the Public Service believe that important measures must be taken without delay", write the authors of this letter. also addressed to President Emmanuel Macron.
The urgency of increasing purchasing power
"The first of the emergencies is that of wages and purchasing power", hammer the eight unions, two months after the announcement of a general increase "before the summer" by the Minister of the Public Service, Amélie de Montchalin .
"The index point [the common remuneration base for the 5.7 million public officials] must therefore be strongly revalued and as soon as possible", they add.
The signatories of the open letter also believe that indexing the value of the index point to the evolution of the cost of living "would be entirely relevant".
On Wednesday, the spokesperson for the previous government Gabriel Attal had indicated after the Council of Ministers that the thawing of the index point would be integrated into a "purchasing power" law, presented after the legislative elections on 12 and June 19.
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What do the unions offer?
Unions "against any decline" in the retirement age
The other major demand expressed in the letter relates to pensions, the unions confirming their "hostility to any further decline in the legal age for being able to retire".
During the presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron promised to gradually raise this age to 65, compared to 62 currently.
The unions mention at the end of the letter several other "structuring files" that they would like to "change", such as professional equality or salary progression grids.
A last subject not sufficiently highlighted, according to the CFDT Public functions, the only representative union not to have signed the letter.
The second organization of public officials considers, moreover, that the demands in terms of pensions apply to the whole of society and must therefore be brought to the confederal level rather than by the only civil service branch of the CFDT.