For its last session before the summer break, the departmental assembly met on Thursday to deliberate on a disputed reform project: the transition to 1,607 hours for territorial public service agents.
According to the law of 6 August 2019 on the transformation of the public service, the departments – like the regions – must apply the new rules of application on 1is January 2023.
New rules
At the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis, some 7,200 agents are concerned. On average, their working time is 37 hours per week, but calculated annually, it falls below 1607 hours (35 hours per week) due to the number of days off granted. For 5,000 agents who are on the general scheme, they are 37 days (38 for mothers), i.e. 1,512 hours or 1,505 hours of work per year. Some agents also benefit from additional leave.
However, the law requires that the number of holidays per year be reduced to 25 days.
But to develop its new working time regulations, the department claims to have “sought all the interstices of the law to exploit to limit the loss of leave.”
Nearly 2,800 agents will benefit from 1 to 8 additional days off, depending on the difficulty and the specific constraints of the organization of working time (continuous day of more than 8 hours, imposed weeks of leave, etc.).
Psychological hardship
An innovation was introduced with recognition of a particular psychological hardship for the agents of the social sector intervening with a public in great precariousness. However, the State must still validate this provision.
Another provision, the obtaining and the installation of days of RTT (reduction of the working time) is facilitated. Some agents will be able to accumulate up to 33 days of RTT per year instead of the current 24 days.
Majority Division
While a strike notice had been filed by an inter-union for the days of July 6 and 7, union representatives, who came in large numbers to the forecourt of the departmental council, were invited to the departmental assembly.
“You can only rely on a minority of your majority, arrested a CGT trade unionist authorized to speak in the preamble to the debates. Why are you taking the risk of having this text adopted thanks to the votes of right-wing elected officials?“
The day before, the elected representatives of the environmental pole and the communist, rebellious and citizen group had indeed renewed in a joint press release their request for a postponement of the vote.
In fact, the vote on the new regulations received the support of elected officials from the Les Républicains group and various right-wingers. The department specifies however that the deliberation would have passed without the votes of the elected representatives of the right, since it collected 27 votes “for” in total, including 12 coming from the left, nine having voted “against”, two having abstained and four did not take part in the vote.
“This law, with the elected representatives of the departmental majority, I opposed it“, explained Stéphane Troussel. “I have told the government that we consider this law to be a reversal of the historic trend towards the reduction of working hours. (…) We pleaded to recognize the specificity of the practice of professions in Seine-Saint-Denis given the socio-economic issues that are particularly current in this territory. We have not been heard. So yes, applying a law that is considered unsuitable, unfair, is not easy. However, we are going to have to implement it like all the communities in France..”
The decision of the Constitutional Council awaited
“We consider it necessary to postpone this deliberation to the autumn“, argued in particular Emilie Lecroq, the president of the group communists, rebellious and citizens.
To justify their request for postponement, trade unionists and elected officials opposed to the reduction of the leave of the agents of the department, asked to wait for the decision of the constitutional council on a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) carried by several elected officials of Val-de-Marne .
They had seized the Council of State, highlighting the principles of free administration of local authorities and contractual freedom (which article 47 of the law of August 6, 2019 would ignore). In its decision to forward this QPC to the Constitutional Council, the Council of State also considered that “the plea alleging that they cause a disproportionate attack on the free administration of local authorities and on freedom of contract that would not be justified by any reason of general interest raises a question which can be regarded as new.”
“While the decision of the Constitutional Council should take place between July 15 and September 1, what is the interest of our community in deliberating on July 7 apart from re-deliberating later?“, wondered Emilie Lecroq who, moreover, mentioned the arm wrestling engaged by five cities of Seine-Saint-Denis.
The president of the departmental council indeed wanted to reassure the elected officials: “if certain ongoing procedures such as the QPC allowed us not to apply it, we will come back [sur la délibération] above by 1is January 2023.”
In contrast, Philippe Dallier, the leader of the Republicans in the department, pointed out “a risk that these elected officials took by opening Pandora’s box. Let’s imagine for a moment that the Constitutional Council agrees with them and validates the argument of free administration on the duration of working time. Has everyone thought about the consequences of such a decision? If the Constitutional Council did so, it would de facto detach the territorial public service from the State and hospital public service, thus opening the way to a possible dismantling of what the territorial public service is today.‘hui.”
The case of Val-de-Marne
Like Emilie Lecroq, Melissa Youssouf mentioned the case of Val-de-Marne, which must deliberate in October.
“The finding is striking“, noted the vice-president (EELV) of the department in charge of integration. “By presenting this report today in session, our department supposed to be the only left in Ile-de-France, adopts a much less interesting position than those currently made by the department of Val-de-Marne.”
What to make Stéphane Troussel jump who castigated references, taken up by elected representatives of the majority, to a department whose executive swung to the right in June 2021. “I look forward to seeing them approve the upgrades proposed in the fall by this new majority (…). I let them approve the new policy concerning, for example, the accompaniment of unaccompanied minors.”
An argument deemed incongruous by Philippe Dallier, leader of the Republicans in the department, for whom this derogation would have been granted to Val-de-Marne only to give it the time necessary to conduct the negotiation for the implementation of reform.
Salary increase
The departmental assembly, on the other hand, unanimously adopted measures to increase salaries.
“While some choose the comfortable posture to allow the application of this law to be imposed by the courts, we have made the choice of transparency vis-à-vis the agents and agents, but also the choice of voluntarism with revaluation measures salary“, hammered Stéphane Troussel.
These upgrades will concern 6,600 agents, representing an effort of “35 million euros between 2021 and 2023, i.e. a 10% increase in payroll“, says the department. Emphasis is placed on feminized professions such as childcare assistants who will benefit, for example, from a minimum increase in the gross monthly salary of 100 euros. Or even on category C agents or those in early childhood, social and health.
