Posted on Nov 8, 2021, 4:45 p.m.
Public services were disrupted and leisure centers closed Wednesday, November 3 in Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis) due to a strike movement by the inter-union (CGT, South, Unsa and FSU) of the city’s territorial agents .
In question: the announcement made by the mayor Tony Di Martino (PS) of the cancellation of the payment of a bonus paid to the agents of the city for 45 years. This premium, known as the “expensive living premium” or “13th month” of an annual amount of 1,200 euros has been paid since 1976 to municipal officials in two installments: half in May, the other in November.
An illegal bounty since 1977
However, the prefecture of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis deemed this bonus illegal and prohibited the payment of December. Indeed, the introduction of this bonus in the municipal council on December 21, 1976 was declared void by prefectural decree … on January 4, 1977. The town hall has nevertheless continued to pay it until today “without any have a special remark ”, according to Tony Di Martino. It was again formalized in the municipal council in 1998 and 2001.
However, since 1984, the law has prohibited the introduction of new one-off end-of-year bonuses for municipal employees. For the prefecture, the municipality should therefore have deliberated on this bonus before 1984 so that it could be maintained after the passage of the law.
The illegality of the bonus was also underlined by the Ile-de-France Regional Chamber of Accounts in its management report of February 4, 2019: “all municipal officials benefit from an annual bonus introduced by the deliberation of December 21, 1976, which is illegal ”.
The chamber has also formulated a “reminder to the law” asking the municipality to “regularize the granting of bonuses and put an end to the irregular payment of the annual bonus. “
One way to put pressure on the town
For Tony Di Martino, this decision after 45 years of payment of the bonus is a way for the prefecture to put pressure on the municipality to institute the new “RIFSEEP” compensation scheme for its agents. Because within the framework of this new system, the premium could again be integrated.
The town hall was indeed to put in place this new regime since 2014. But the unions of the town opposed it because it provides for a part of fixed remuneration and another “on merit”. The city council is committed to setting up the RIFSEEP as of next year but “regrets that the management efforts requested from the communities by the State amount to attacking the purchasing power of public officials, in particular to the eve of the end of year celebrations. “
On the side of the opposition, the elected Raquel Garrido (LFI), believes that “the mayor is the authorizing officer, he can therefore pay this annual bonus which has existed for more than 40 years, even if it means entering into a legal battle, even judicial with Prefecture “.
All possibilities studied
Indeed, Tony Di Martino has the possibility of requisitioning the public accountant to oblige the payment of the premium. But “this procedure is very supervised and presents no guarantee of success. If I engaged it under current conditions, the risk would be twofold: that the accountant would ask the agents to reimburse the second installment of the annual bonus and to see my liability engaged, ”he says.
He therefore entrusts to study all the legal possibilities which could allow the payment of this bonus for the month of November, before integrating it into RIFSEEP “as soon as possible”.
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