France’s Finance and Economic Affairs minister, Bruno Le Maire, is to summon SNCF chief, Jean-Pierre Farandou, to a meeting to explain the signing of an ‘early retirement’ agreement with the four main labour unions at the state railways which he believes circumvents a 2023 French reform law.
The agreement, signed at the end of last month, gives SNCF staff a better end-of-career deal than under previous provision and is widely-seen in France as a way of ‘buying’ industrial relations peace and offsetting the risk of strikes during this summer’s Olympic and Para-Olympic Games in which SNCF, as a transport provider, is a key partner.
It is due to come into force at the start of next year and is particularly beneficial to SNCF staff who occupy physically-demanding jobs. Workers in this category, including drivers, will be able to join an early retirement scheme 30 months before they retire, with 15 months of work paid at 100% and 15 months of non-work paid at 75%. “It’s a good, fair agreement,” said Thomas Cavel, national secretary of the railway workers branch of the CFDT union.
SNCF will have to answer to the Ministry
One estimate has put the cost of the package at around 300 million euros, depending on how many workers opt to take advantage of it. Last week, Le Maire described the agreement as “unsatisfactory” and represented a “dysfunction” and said he would be summoning SNCF’s CEO in the coming few days to provide an explanation. “An agreement has been signed that will affect the balance of French pension reform. I recognise that it’s up to SNCF’s CEO to manage relations with the unions, but the minister responsible must be kept informed”, asserted Bruno Le Maire.
Farandou will therefore “have to account to me for this agreement, which gives a feeling of double standards that is very provocative for many of our compatriots who work hard and have accepted the pension reform”, he continued.”I have the right to demand accountability. I want him (Farandou) to explain to me how he is financing this agreement that he concluded without the government being informed,” Le Maire asserted.“ I expect a convincing explanation and I want to correct a malfunction.. He underlined that the French state had “found 35 billion euros a few years ago when (heavily-indebted) SNCF needed to rebalance its books, so I’m entitled to ask for accounts too”.
The statutory retirement age in France is being raised from 62 to 64 but this does not apply to SNCF personnel. However, sources at the rail utility claim that since 2008, three rounds of pension reforms have raised the average retirement age of its staff from 55 to 59 years and seven months. In an exceptionally rare show of unanimity at SNCF, each of the major labour unions, the CGT, UNSA, CFDT and Sud Rail have signed the early retirement agreement with management. Sud-Rail has called off a strike scheduled for later this month following the inking of the early retirement deal. The SNCF Group recorded a third consecutive year in the black in 2023.
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