The pension reform could provoke “a rather strong reaction” from railway workers, fears the executive director of SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, who wants to “go through as few problems as possible” a probable new period of strike.
“We can expect quite a strong reaction around these issues, which will bring the company into disarray,” he said in his wishes to rail workers posted online on Wednesday, when the earlier reform attempt had sparked a month-and-a-half strike. , in December 2019 and January 2020, and cost the company close to one billion euros.
“We will have a thought for our customers,” especially “those who need the train to go to work,” he said. “We will have to try to get through this period, which promises to be as easy as possible,” continues Jean-Pierre Farandou, a week before the announcement of the government’s pension reform project.
return of assistance
The year 2022 was marked by the return of assistance, it also welcomes the head of the SNCF. “In return, the production apparatus, the personnel, the rolling stock were put under pressure, all of that was very tense and we may have had some small service quality issues here and there. That is why we must remain vigilant, ”he observes.
The railways have increased an average of 6% and should increase by the same amount in 2023. “It is 6% again, which by the way is 12% in two years. There are not many companies that have increased their workforce by an average of 12% in two years”, comments Jean-Pierre Farandou. If he does not confirm the figure of 2.2 billion euros of net profit for 2022 mentioned in the press, Jean-Pierre Farandou concedes that “it is likely that (the public group) is going to have a good year.”
“We should be happy about that,” he said. “A company that earns a little money is a company that can invest for its future, in TGV trains, in workshops, in stations, in infrastructure, in information systems. So it is good news that the SNCF is earning some money”. “We are at 5% of results with respect to the total billing of the company, so it is still very moderate,” he tempers. “2023 is much more complicated,” she warns, fearing higher inflation or lower attendance due to less activity.
7,000 contracts in 2023
In any case, the SNCF will continue to recruit “massively”: 7,000 people this year, after 6,000 in 2022, according to him. “I want all the establishments to have enough staff to make quality production,” he says, promising to “better protect and better develop railway workers within the company” and in particular deal with “everyday irritants”.
“I very much hope that we will have decisions that will be made this year in 2023 for a massive investment plan in the railway”, also indicates Jean-Pierre Farandou, who has fought in recent months to obtain financial arbitrations favorable to the sector. .
“I heard, like others, the President of the Republic talk about express metropolitan rail networks in a dozen major cities in the region. I also heard several ministers say ‘yes, we need to put more money into the French rail network’. (…) It is my piece of blue sky”, rejoices the general director of the SNCF.
Source: BFM TV
