Parliament approved on Wednesday, by final vote in the National Assembly, a bill aimed at organizing air navigation services in the event of social unrest, despite opposition from the left.
This “protective and balanced” text makes it possible to put an end to “an asymmetric system” that causes a “disorganization of the public service,” said the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, from the chamber.
The senatorial bill, adopted in June by the upper house and brought to the Assembly by Renaissance deputy Damien Adam, was adopted with 85 votes to 30. The left opposed it, considering the text as “a threat to the right to strike.” “, according to Green MP Lisa Belluco.
Minimum adapted service
Senator Vincent Capo-Canellas (Unión de Centro) has promoted this bill that obliges all air agents who perform functions “whose absence may directly affect the performance of flights” to individually declare their participation. in a strike movement two days earlier.
The social movements linked to the pension reform in the first half of 2023 led the government to activate the accelerated procedure for examining the text, which will allow a single reading in each chamber and rapid final adoption.
Specifically, the single article of the text requires that strikers communicate their participation in a social movement “no later than noon on the day before each day of strike.”
Currently, air traffic control unions must submit any strike notice five days before the strike, but strikers do not have to declare their individual participation, unlike other employees in the sector.
249 days of strike between 2005 and 2016
In a press release published on Tuesday, the national union of air traffic controllers (SNCTA), the majority union in the sector, expressed itself in favor of the text, warning of an “instrumentalization of the right to strike and its unjustified use” in certain circumstances.
The text aims to allow “an adapted minimum service”, that is, the obligation imposed on public service employees to guarantee a minimum service in all circumstances and the application of “proportionate measures” to the real needs of the sector in the event of a strike, said rapporteur Damien Adam.
The Government, for its part, undertakes to review the conditions of the minimum service system, which has applied to air traffic controllers since 1985.
According to a study on air traffic controllers’ strikes in Europe between 2005 and 2016, France recorded 249 days of strike, compared to 34 in Italy, 44 in Greece and less than ten in the other Member States, Adam recalled.
Source: BFM TV
