On Tuesday, September 24, at midday, there was a traffic jam in the reception hall of the Bayonne hospital. Several hundred employees of the establishment crowded into the “covered street” to express their concern about seeing their work organization profoundly disrupted.
On September 19, the management of the Basque Coast Hospital Center (CHCB) informed all staff of its desire to begin the process of renegotiating the local agreement on the organization of working hours. The contract, which sets in stone a number of social benefits, was initialed in February 2002. And has apparently not been revisited since.
Changes in working hours, work cycles, consideration of meal times, changing shifts or dressing and undressing times, which were previously counted as working hours, lump sums for vacation days, annual RTT planning, etc. Nearly 3,500 employees would be affected by this reorganization: members of the nursing, technical and administrative staff, as well as those working in the logistics sector. A huge undertaking in perspective. Nevertheless, management seems determined to put all of these issues, which affect the daily lives of hospital staff, back on the table.
“Disconnected”
She says she was inspired by “the grassroots organizations of almost all hospitals in France” to submit a “road map” to the unions of the structure (CGT, CFDT, FO and Unsa). The latter describe a “vague” document, “disconnected from the reality on the ground.”
As the first negotiation meetings begin on Wednesday, September 25, they fear a “tightening” of their working conditions. “The hospital is in deficit and the management, under the orders of the ARS (Regional Health Agency, Editor’s note), is presenting us with its measures to financially straighten out our establishment,” grumbles Patrick Cazalis, secretary of the UNSA.
We will make teams that are already exhausted work more days per year
The management is considering, in particular, changing the working hours for departments working 7 hours 45 minutes or 8 hours. “The idea would be to move to 7.5 hour days. But this could also take the form of 10-hour or 12-hour daily schedules, depending on the department,” continues the union representative. Why? Because by reducing the day by 15 minutes, that’s five RTT days removed per year (1). And there are 3,500 of us in Bayonne concerned. Calculate the gain for the establishment…”
“We’re going to make teams that are already exhausted work more days a year,” warns Marie-Pierre Etchebarne, spokesperson for the inter-union. “Not to mention the impact on the functioning of the services. In the laundry alone, if we remove 15 minutes of work per day per agent, that’s tons less laundry that will be processed daily. When we welcome a patient, we have a clean bed, we change the bed every day…”
Versatility
For the director of the Bayonne hospital, Frédéric Espenel, such adjustments would reduce the need for external reinforcements to compensate for staff absences. “We want to save time to reduce the volume of these replacement monthly payments. Part of the savings should allow us to set up replacement centres. In other words, professionals who can go to different departments of the hospital to provide replacements. This was a strong expectation of the teams,” insists the director.
At the same time, the hospital would commit to ensuring the elimination of 60-hour weekly schedules, when the regulations set the legal maximum at 40 hours. Similarly, management would like the rule of at least one Sunday off in two to be introduced. Frédéric Espenel justifies the opening of this project by the need to “modernize the operation of the hospital” and to “participate in restoring the budgetary situation.”
The director of the CHCB recalls that the establishment ended 2023 with a record deficit of 18 million euros, out of a total budget of 400 million euros.
(1) An agent who works 7 hours 45 minutes today benefits from 19 RTTs.
