Labor inspection placed under the supervision of aviation: “With this decree, we are walking on our heads” – L’Humanité

At the bottom of the decree of October 31, 2023 relating to a vast regulatory recoding in air transport, a signature is perhaps, more than any other, surprising. It’s that of Olivier Dussopt.

Both in form and in substance, because the Minister of Labor and his central administration failed to alert their own services of the publication of this text, which, by establishing new provisions (additional commissions and oaths, automatic transmission to the civil aviation administration of reports drawn up in the event of infractions, etc.), disrupts the prerogatives of the labor inspectorate and undermines its independence. Member of the national office of the CGT at the Ministry of Labor, Simon Picou is demanding, with other unions, its immediate repeal.

According to you, this decree places the labor inspectors responsible for controlling airlines under the supervision of civil aviation. Are there any precedents?

What is completely new for labor inspectors is the fact of having to, as the decree provides, be sworn in and commissioned by a ministry other than that of Labor. We take an oath at the start of our career and that’s it!

There, depending on the assignment and activity of the companies that we are required to control, we should receive additional authorization from another ministry, that of Transport. If we draw a parallel, tomorrow, I am assigned to a rural section, and I am subject to an oath and a commission from the Ministry of Agriculture? This is unprecedented.

Were you aware of the publication of this decree?

Absolutely not. It was our colleagues, assigned to the airport platforms, who discovered it once it was published and who immediately alerted the General Directorate of Labor (DGT) through hierarchical channels. We were never informed internally of the entry into force of this text. And no one explained to us either the scope or the consequences. We are walking on our heads with this decree.

The only “interest”, and I emphasize the quotation marks, is not for the labor inspectorate, but for the employers subject to its control, because this will make our interventions more difficult, by creating additional complexity which will be able to be used by employers: they will be able to refuse access to the premises to colleagues, prevention engineers or those responsible for the fight against illegal work, organized over geographical areas larger than the airport, who would not have therefore not the commissioning or swearing required.

What does this imposed limitation of your prerogatives reveal?

For us, this is a further sign that large companies in the airline sector are separate employers, which benefit from very special treatment from the government and the Ministry of Labor. We want to bring labor inspection under the control of another administration, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC).

Establishing a specific transmission of all documents produced by the labor inspectorate to the DGAC is still a shame when we know how this same DGAC intervenes. We have observed this in recent years, in the context of criminal proceedings initiated for violations of the Labor Code committed by airlines. Quite systematically, it directly calls into question the skills and findings drawn up by the labor inspectorate.

How can we understand, then, the approval given by the Ministry of Labor to this decree?

We don’t have the end of the story. On Friday, November 17, we published an inter-union inquiry (CGT-FSU-SUD-CNT) to the attention of the DGT and the minister. Perhaps we will be given an explanation as to what led to this fiasco and, in any case, we demand the immediate repeal of this decree.

But, one of two things: either the ministry and the DGT have fully understood what this decree implies, so they are taking an active part in hindering controls in the aviation sector; or they suffer the situation, and this is the sign of an extreme decomposition of the Labor administration. In both cases, it is very worrying.