Highlights: France: strike movement in a public service and hospitals in complete disarray. Teaching, administration... This Tuesday, March 19, the civil service goes on strike in France to demand better salaries. This is also the case for nurses who say they are exhausted, obliged to work 12-hour days. Since Covid, these nurses at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris have been assured: their working conditions have deteriorated. The last increase they all had at the hospital was €24.60 in January.

Teaching, administration...This Tuesday, March 19, the civil service goes on strike in France to demand better salaries. This is also the case for nurses who say they are exhausted, obliged…

France: strike movement in a public service and hospitals in complete disarray

Teaching, administration...This Tuesday, March 19, the civil service goes on strike in France to demand better salaries.

This is also the case for nurses who say they are at their wits' end, forced to keep up at hellish pace, while salaries are increasing slowly.

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In a hospital in Rouen, in 2021 (illustration).

AP - Christophe Ena

By: RFI Follow

Since Covid, these nurses at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris have been assured: their working conditions have deteriorated.

For Aurélie Jochaud, it’s because of the workforce reductions.

“

When someone is missing in the kitchen to deliver breakfast, it has repercussions,”

she explains.

The hospital is crumbling, there is less time to do things, because there are fewer and fewer of us.

The consequence, according to Aïcha Haccoun, also a nurse, is that she has to manage many more patients.

“

To compensate for this lack of staff, we are made to work more.
So, twelve hour days.
I'm so tired that sometimes, in the evening, I come home, go to bed, and then I tell my children to look at what's in the fridge.
And that’s not normal

,” she said.

Little salary increase

Nursing staff are exhausted, and salaries are increasing less quickly than inflation, recalls Aurélie Jochaud: “

We are at more than 20% increase in the cost of living.
The last increase we all had at the hospital was €24.60 in January.
Five index points.

A sum that no longer allows Aïcha Haccoun to live properly despite the hours spent at work.

“

Before,

she remembers,

the four of us could have a restaurant, because there are four of us in the family, at least once a month.
Now, it's once a quarter, because we no longer have the means.
You have to make sacrifices, we do them all the time, and after a while, you get tired of it.

To be able to continue to live with dignity from their work, these nurses will strike this Tuesday for a fair increase in their salaries.

France: strike movement in a public service and hospitals in complete disarray

France: strike movement in a public service and hospitals in complete disarray

Little salary increase

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