In Sylvie Gibel’s vast office, time seems to have accelerated. At an impressive speed, the town clerk of the commune of Montpezat, in the Gers, goes from simultaneously reading her emails and her letters to filling in a volley of data on the various software installed on her computer. While tackling the countless civil status applications filed during the week, she classifies in separate small piles and in order of priority the documents to be signed by the mayor. Barely enough time to take a look at the main square of the village, deserted and calm, to watch for the arrival of the elected official: a complex urban planning file has to be settled with the Departmental Directorate of Territories (DDT) of Gers, find a marriage certificate in a register from 1920, contact a craftsman to bind the old family record book of a citizen. Do not forget to make an appointment with a supplier for the photocopier. “I’m inundated with information, circulars, emails. There’s no room for fatigue!” exclaims the dynamic fifty-something, running to the four corners of the room.
But when a resident gently pushes open the office door, this precise ballet suddenly stops. Arlette, who initially came to find out about the demarcation of her property, extended her unexpected visit. She shares her concerns, evokes pell-mell inflation, her husband’s cancer and her difficulties in registering online on the electoral rolls… Sylvie slips her a few kind words, settles her administrative situation in three clicks. A quarter of an hour later, the citizen leaves the room, a broad smile on her face. And the town clerk resumes her mad dash. “Taking care of them is what I prefer. I put everything on hold to listen to them, but unfortunately I no longer have enough time to devote to them,” she breathes. From “secretary”, Sylvie’s profession seems to bear only the name. A jurist, psychologist, urban planner, mediator, accountant and HRD, she has seen her position evolve significantly over the past ten years.
“It’s not a hiding job, I tell you! If there is the slightest mistake, it’s for my apple”, she says, crushed by the weight of standards, rules and dematerialization. Evidenced by the office of the town hall of Montpezat, covered with colored Post-its, recalling here and there a forgotten deadline or a file to be completed urgently. The same little papers are pasted everywhere in the town halls of Marestaing, Montégut-Savès and Pujaudran, towns in which Sylvie works a few days a week. “We end up getting out of it, even if every week, we have the impression of drowning. And that nobody really realizes it”, she comments. Mayor of Montpezat since 2008, Guy Larée nevertheless readily admits it: it is indeed the town hall secretaries who manage “90%” of what happens in the municipalities. “Sylvie takes care of the follow-up of all the projects, subsidies, software and finances. Honestly, I wouldn’t have the skills to do what she does”. While nearly 2,000 town clerk positions are to be filled, and a quarter of the agents are over 58, the elected official is worried. Who will come to replace his precious right arm once retirement comes?
“Enter the Arena”
It must be said that the function, little known and lined with clichés, is no longer really a dream. No less than 62% of town hall secretaries currently work part-time, and 24% share their working time between three or more municipalities to achieve a full salary. With an overwhelming majority of women (94%), most of these civil servants (60.4%) are also recruited as category C administrative assistants – i.e. a salary barely higher than the minimum wage and changes in nearly impossible career. “To move into category B and earn a few extra tens of euros, you have to pass the territorial editor competition. I got it after months of work, but out of 1999 candidates, only 102 were admitted… I understand that some give up”, testifies Sylvie, annoyed. After 27 years discreetly spent behind the office of her town halls, the secretary has therefore decided to “enter the arena”.
At the end of 2021, she creates, without great expectations, a facebook group supposed to gather the claims of its sisters. The success of the page is phenomenal: less than two years after its creation, it brings together nearly 2,300 members. Everywhere in France, town hall secretaries tell about their extended days, the expansion of their skills, the lack of training, the low salary and, above all, the professional suffering due to the lack of recognition of the profession. “There are mayors with whom things are going well, and others who take our work for granted. They demand, we execute. It can be very difficult”, summarizes Sylvie. In the meantime, the media machine got carried away. The “little Gersoise”, as she likes to call herself, created her local association, met the prefect of Gers, the deputy of the department, Jean-René Cazeneuve, the local presidents of the AMF and the Association of rural mayors, and was even approached by local CGT representatives, who were politely dismissed.
Last October, Sylvie’s fight took another turn, when the Ministry of Transformation and the Public Service invited her to meet Stanislas Guérini in person, in Paris. “I was in the middle of Covid when I received their email. I thought the fever was playing tricks on me,” she remembers, laughing. Conscientiously, she prepares the question form sent by the Minister’s team. It will remain in her purse throughout the meeting, a few weeks later. “I needed to speak directly with him, without fuss. I feel like I have been heard, but I am now waiting for concrete actions”. According to Jean-René Cazeneuve, who salutes an “unprecedented and primordial fight”, the determination of Sylvie Gibel pays off. “There is currently a real political awareness of the importance of standardizing the statutes of town hall secretaries, and of raising their salaries. Several bills are being adopted on the subject”.
Among them, the text carried by the communist senator Céline Brulin, adopted in the Senate at first reading in early April 2023, which proposes to improve the training of town hall secretaries, to facilitate their career development or to open up to municipalities with 1,000 to 2,000 inhabitants the possibility of recruiting contract workers. François Patriat, senator for the Côte d’Or, also took up the subject: on June 14, his bill, the adoption of which would make it possible in particular to requalify category C agents in category B, will be examined by the Senate. “We worked with Stanislas Guérini on the subject. The government’s opinion is favorable, as is that of the majority of the groups. This proposal has a good chance of succeeding,” he told L’Express. A potential victory for Sylvie Gibel, who does not let go of her fight at the local level. On June 23, she will meet the prefect of Gers for a second time, in order to present her demands to him again. “And in the meantime, I have plenty to do,” she slips, turning on the computer of the town hall of Marestaing. Time is running out: her famous Post-its still cover a good part of the office, and the mayor, Claudine Danezan, has just arrived. Thirty emails are pending.