Striking public sector workers pressure French government for better pay

Trade unions have called on France's 5.7 million public sectors workers to walk out on Tuesday in a push for better pay and conditions, a month after the government announced some €10 billion in public spending cuts.

One in five of France's active population works in the public sector – they teach, provide healthcare, and ensure a host of administrative services that keep the country ticking over.

But their union reps insist wages are not keeping up with inflation and working conditions are deteriorating.

In a joint statement the unions said: “We urgently need to open negotiations to improve career prospects and take general measures to improve pay".

They called for "an immediate 10 percent increase in the value of the index point" – which the state uses to determine salaries in the public sector – "and the recovery of purchasing power lost since January 2000 ... at a time when public sector pay grades are collapsing".

The latest figures show inflation stood at 3.1 percent in January 2024.

“We are still in a period of quite high inflation,” says Mylène Jacquot, a senior official from France's centrist CFDT union.

“Public sector workers' purchasing power is impacted, so that's our primary demand,” she told RFI.

Merit-based hikes

Hospitals and schools are expected to be the services worst affected on Tuesday, with more than 100 demonstrations planned nationwide.

The call to strike was launched on 25 January, just days after President Macron held a major press conference in which he announced plans to revise public sector salaries.

“The main criteria for promotion and remuneration for our civil servants should be merit, in addition to length of service,” he insisted.

But Mireille Stivala, a leading rep with the hard-left CGT union, rejects the introduction of merit-based salary hikes.

“We are totally opposed to this notion,” she told RFI. “We consider that services delivered to the population should not be subject  to merit-based salaries... as if they were merchandise.”

Official data shows that the average net monthly salary in the public sector in France in 2021 was €2,500.   

The gross monthly salary for teachers ranges from around €1,900 to €3,300, depending on experience. Nurses have very similar pay scales. 

However, “10 percent of public sector workers earn less than €1,500 per month," Mylène Jacquot points out. "So you can't say civil servants are better paid or paid too much, and that changes should be made only on merit. That's a totally ideological notion.”

Worsening conditions

The unions also contest the looming reduction in public spending.

Last month, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced €10 billion in spending cuts across all government departments and agencies to compensate for a larger than anticipated drop in growth this year. 

• Slower economic growth means France must cut €10bn in public spending

In a letter to Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, relayed in Le Figaro daily, a leading rep with the FO union said public sector workers were carrying out their functions in “permanently worsening conditions”.

Pressure ahead of the Games

The social situation in France remains tense, following recent protests by teachers, police officers and farmers.

The FO is one of several unions threatening to extend strike action beyond 19 March through to 8 September – to cover the period of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics – unless workers mobilised during the Games are sufficiently compensated.

In a bid to ease tension, the Minister for Transformation and Public Administration, Stanislas Guerini, recently promised bonuses ranging from €500 to €1,500 to civil servants deployed across the capital during the Games.

• CGT union says it will stage strike during Paris Olympics

He also said the government was working on a plan to help employees with childcare during that period – including nurseries for civil servants on duty and some 1,000 spots in summer camps. Employees with children will also be able to claim bonuses of between €200 to €350 per child depending on their family situation.

The unions, however, say this is insufficient.
Solidaires-FP has demanded all public sector workers required to work during the Games get the same compensation, aligned with the €1,900 bonus already promised to police officers and gendarmes.

So far Guérini has ruled out any across-the-board salary increases for civil servants this year.

Last Thursday, he presented the unions with figures showing the government had spent €13.8 billion on public sector salaries since 2022.

Unions say the numbers are not objective and are based on “a very biased choice of items”.