More than a week after the start of the garbage collectors’ strike in Paris, as part of the mobilization against the pension reform, the police prefect Laurent Núñez announced the requisition of agents to clear the streets of the capital, where accumulated 3,000 tons of waste. they are collected daily at normal times.
Normally, it is the city council that is in charge of ensuring the “healthiness” of the city, and therefore organizing garbage collection. However, Anne Hidalgo said “not to follow up” on the request of the government, and particularly of Gérald Darmanin, to requisition the garbage collectors herself.
“After a formal notice to the mayor has failed,” the prefect can then replace his authority. In this regard, it refers to the risk to health, the risk to the safety of the inhabitants and the risk of fire.
An emergency”
It is the General Code of Territorial Communities that establishes the legal basis for this requisition by the State. Article 2215-1 authorizes the prefect to “requisition any good or service and request any person necessary for the operation of this service or the use of this good.”
However, to rely on this text, you must justify “the observed or foreseeable attack against good order, health, tranquility and public safety.” The article specifies, in fact, that it is necessary to be in an “emergency case”.
The prefect may “prescribe any useful measure until the disturbance of public order has ceased or the conditions for its maintenance are assured.”
Six months in prison with a fine of €10,000
Therefore, the prefecture has issued a prefectural decree in this regard. Anne Hidalgo, as her employer, is required to provide the list of required personnel. As BFM Paris-Île-de-France learned this Thursday, the city council sent the police headquarters the list of 4,000 names of cleaners in the city services as well as their addresses.
Then, the searches are carried out by bailiffs, accompanied by the police officers who carry out the measure. Employees who refuse to return to work commit a crime punishable by “six months in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros.”
challenge the order
The objective of such requisition is, therefore, to solve the unsanitary problem invoked, not necessarily to return to normal service. Therefore, not all agents will necessarily be requisitioned.
how do you remember Releasein January 2022, the Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture decided to requisition garbage collectors during a strike and stoppage.
However, this measure was challenged in court and was finally considered irregular. In the present case, the unions could also try to challenge the decree of the prefect questioning the risk of unsanitary conditions.
In addition, requisitioned striking employees or unions could file a provisional suspension with the Paris administrative court to circumvent the requisition. But to be admissible, they must have “an interest in acting.”
Source: BFM TV
