The Minister of the Civil Service affirmed on Tuesday October 29 that he did not wish to “throw in the trash” the idea launched by his predecessor of eliminating categories A, B and C, which govern the salary scale of civil servants. “It’s a subject that is eruptive for many unions”, but “we continue to discuss it”, assured Guillaume Kasbarian, interviewed on RTL.
A structuring element in the careers of 5.7 million public officials, the category system classifies civil servants according to their level of diploma. Category C, the lowest paid, is accessible without a diploma, with a CAP, a BEP or a college certificate, category B with a baccalaureate and category A with a Bac + 2 or Bac + 3 level depending on the branches of the public service. But many agents today are too qualified for the category in which they work.
“The categories often lock up public officials, they create glass ceilings that are very difficult to break,” justified the previous Minister of the Civil Service, Stanislas Guerini, in May, three weeks before the surprise dissolution of the National Assembly . Seven of the eight public service unions then reacted by indicating their refusal to “call into question the statutory guarantees which allow the recognition of qualifications and the right to career: categories, grade, step”. “This project […] does not respond to the needs of the Civil Service, its personnel, and takes directions which, on the contrary, lead to a step backwards”, indicated the CGT, the CFDT, the Unsa, the FSU, Solidaires, the CFE- CGC and the FA-FP.
“He hates civil servants”
Other controversial proposals made by his predecessor that Guillaume Kasbarian intends to take up: the increase in remuneration based on merit, “which we continue to put in consultation with the union organizations”, as well as dismissal “in the event of insufficiency”, ” a subject which is not taboo and which must also be discussed within the framework of social dialogue”, indicated the minister.
“This Minister of the Civil Service, obviously he hates civil servants”, pointed out Sophie Binet this Tuesday, given her declarations or her intentions to “resume the civil service reform left by her predecessor, a red rag”. While the government wishes to tighten the conditions for compensation for sick leave for civil servants, the general secretary of the CGT denounced on RMC/BFMTV “a populist proposal” and “civil servant bashing, and called on “employees and retirees to do not give in to fatalism” and “multiply mobilizations”.