HomeEconomy“Hypocrisy”, “injustice”: unions criticize the possible tightening of sick leave in the...

“Hypocrisy”, “injustice”: unions criticize the possible tightening of sick leave in the public service

Unions have expressed their anger following the government’s announcement of its desire to toughen compensation conditions for civil servants’ sick leave.

“Anti-civil servant government”, “hypocrisy”, “injustice”… Civil servants’ unions reacted strongly this Monday to the Government’s announcement to tighten the conditions for compensation for civil servants’ sick leave.

These measures are part of a total of 5,000 million euros of additional savings announced on Sunday by the Government and which will be subject to modifications in the budget. While the Social Security financing bill for 2025 begins to be examined in the Assembly on Monday, the Government is focusing on sick leave in the public service with the aim of saving 1.2 billion euros.

This means moving to three waiting days, compared to one currently, and paying less for sick leave, 90% of the salary paid, compared to 100%.

“The tightening of remuneration conditions in case of sick leave is just one more element. The Minister had already announced that he wanted to eliminate the individual guarantee of purchasing power (compensation paid to civil servants whose remuneration has increased less rapidly than the increase in prices, writes the editor. Add to this the budgetary savings that leave little hope for an increase in the index and the salary scale, it is still a pittance,” he continues.

Attraction in danger

“The attractiveness of the civil service will be affected by this recurring phenomenon of attacks on civil servants,” warns Luc Farré, secretary general of the UNSA civil service, whose union is calling for the measure to be withdrawn. “There is a double standard. We thank public officials when they intervene in the general interest, but we hold them responsible for France’s deficit: we do not increase them and we make them pay when they are sick,” he adds.

“We would do better to address the causes of absenteeism in the public service, linked to working conditions, instead of finding measures that do not compensate for the billions that are missing” in the budget, he adds, ensuring that only the unions were informed. . of the measures planned on Sunday afternoon, just before their formalization.

If Mylène Jacquot (CFDT Public Service) believes that “parliamentary debate must take place”, she says she wants to “ask our entrepreneurs to find more useful, less stigmatizing and more effective solutions in budgetary terms.”

Private sector

The government explains that these measures would only serve to align the public service with the private sector. This is the case of increasing sick leave compensation from 100% to 90% of salary.

But as for the three-day waiting period, which would allow Social Security to begin compensating sick officials only from the fourth day of the closure, “the argument does not hold water,” according to Luc Farré: “private sector employees 75 10% of them can benefit from care these days through their company or their mutual insurance company. However, in the public service there are no mutual insurance companies or collective agreements,” he says. This is confirmed by Eric Chevée, CPME vice president in charge of social affairs.

“With mandatory complementary medical insurance, generally paid 50% by the worker and 50% by the employer, many sectoral or company agreements cover three days of sick leave. The same does not happen with civil servants, who do not have mutual insurance to cover this,” he adds.

According to Eric Chevée, on the contrary, it would be necessary to impose “one or two days of ‘public order’ waiting, both in the public and private sectors, which no mutual insurance company would cover.” “Of course, these days would not refer to scheduled care or serious pathologies,” he adds. The idea of ​​a non-compensable deficiency day was already proposed this month by Yannick Neuder, general rapporteur (LR) for the Social Security budget.

Author: PL with AFP
Source: BFM TV

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