Seven public service union federations (CFDT, CFTC, CGC, CGT, FSU, Solidaires and UNSA) have written a joint letter to the Public Service Minister on the issue of minimum pay and the purchasing power of public sector workers. The unions are unhappy about the unilateral decision by the ministry to increase the minimum salary in the public sector to bring it in line with the national minimum wage (SMIC), which was as of 1 January 2012 increased by 2.1% (to €1393.82 a month), while maintaining an overall freeze on public sector pay. The unions are calling for a pay increase to the index point on which all public sector salaries are based, along with a further increase to take account of several years of below-inflation pay rises. They also want to see a general review of the public sector pay system. The FO-Fonctionnaire federation has also criticised the ministry’s policy and called for a 5% increase on the public sector pay index point as well as allocating an additional 44 points to all public sector salaries.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/453
French: http://www.spterritoriaux.cgt.fr/spip.php?article5152
http://www.fo-fonctionnaires.fr/
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl or the communications officer of the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2012.