On December 11, the Council of State will examine the request of the Collective of the Forgotten of National Education. This is a group made up of teachers who feel wronged when their seniority is taken into account. Among the 210 applicants, 10 are Corsicans.
They say to themselves “victims of injustice by the Ministry of National Education”. Several former teachers created, in 2019, the Collective of Forgotten National Education. The latter feel wronged in the taking into account of their seniority.
For the collective, it is about “the last chance for French justice to repair the wrongs done to teachers and restore their dignity.”
Administrator of this group, Marie-Josée Giovanni is one of the 210 former teachers to have taken legal action against the Ministry of National Education three years ago.
Today a school principal in Olmeto, she is part of the “last generation of teachers” and is fighting against this injustice. A fight which will soon take another turn: on December 11, the Council of State will sit in joint session to examine their request.
To understand this request, we must go back to 1991 and the reform of Lionel Jospin, then Minister of National Education. At that time, the normal schools were closed and we saw the opening of the IUFM (university teacher training institute), where school teachers were now trained.
That same year, 1991, the body of school teachers (category A) was also created. However, 249,000 current teachers (and others subsequently) will be excluded from this body for purely budgetary reasons. Teachers are listed in category B, while school teachers are classified in category A.”They then produced a breach of equal pay“, protests Marie-Josée Giovanni.
A question then arises: what are the differences between a primary school teacher and a school teacher? This is the root of the problem, which irritates the director:
“We do the same job, in the same schools, with the same responsibilities, the same hours to work, the same transfers… There is no difference, except that they receive 8,500 euros per year more than We. We are paid less than people who have less seniority than us and who have been trained“, insists Marie-Josée Giovanni. Before emphasizing: “according to European laws, this is a violation of the principle of equal pay. Same job, same pay!“
So that these former teachers could become school teachers, two possibilities were available to them. Either request their integration or take a competitive examination.
“But there were few school teacher positions. Some were integrated, others took the exam, and the others had to wait!“
Marie-Josée Giovanni passed the internal competition after 31 years. Which is equivalent to 20 years of school teaching. “I find myself at level 10, like people who are 15 years senior to me…“, laments the director.
But it does not stop there. In 2018, Jean-Michel Blanquer implemented a reform which further sidelines former teachers. Today, although most of them have joined the ranks of school teachers, they feel “a little more excluded from promotions with each new regulation”. Ces “former teachers“, who are now approaching retirement, learn that their length of service as teachers will not be taken into account for the transition to “hors-class” (classification allowing a change in salary bracket).
“This same school teacher, a former primary school teacher, cannot access the “out of class”, due to less seniority in the school teacher corps. Their years as a teacher are no longer counted towards promotions, as if they had not exercised the same profession as their school teacher colleagues.“
On the verge of retirement, these teachers “sacrificed to reasons of state“, says the director, have decided to no longer suffer. They are demanding compensation for their reduced salaries:
“I was underpaid for 31 years.” insists Marie-Josée Giovanni. “We are also asking for compensation for the moral damage suffered. We have seen school teachers arrive who are less trained than us, better paid, it is very hard morally. It is we who taught them the profession. And finally, we ask a reconstruction of my career. Me, if they reconstruct my career, I will have 1,000 euros more. Now, I have barely more than the minimum old age.”
Aware of the difficulties in obtaining satisfaction from French administrative justice, they are also preparing two appeals: one before the Court of Justice of the European Union (for non-compliance with European regulations), the other before the Court European Human Rights Commission (for violation of the right to equal pay).
“The main interest of December 11 is the fact that we will have a motivation, whatever it may be, to support us during these appeals. The Council of State hearing on December 11 is therefore the last chance for French Justice to repair the wrongs done to teachers and restore their dignity..”
In total, 210 former teachers embarked on this “adventure“Among them, ten are Corsicans.”This is huge compared to the number of applicants, knowing that we are a small academy. We don’t have much hope because we know that the French justice system would have difficulty finding us right. Because this would have a huge financial cost, and this could apply to other administrations which have the same problem, such as nurses. But our lawyer (Me Bertrand Salquain) says it’s not lost“.
The latter alone defends the 210 applicants in 23 different administrative courts. “This is not a class action, but a grouping of individual actions.“, concludes Marie-Josée Giovanni.
2023-12-07 16:30:48
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