A collective of “angry municipal police officers” and several unions are calling on municipal police officers to strike on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve as well as on January 1, to demand in particular better pay conditions. “We have had a significant increase in the skills of municipal police officers for 40 years without social compensation. We say stop!”, explained this Sunday, December 24, David Quevilly, municipal police officer in Toulouse and vice-president of the National Police Federation municipal authorities of France (FNPMF, created in March), contacted by AFP. “If you do not increase our salaries and our pensions, you will no longer be able to count on municipal police officers,” he warned.
In addition to the strike planned for December 24 and 31, he announced rallies in front of regional prefectures in the territory on Saturday February 3. “We can go further if necessary with the organization of the Paris Olympic Games in mind (Editor’s note: July 26-August 11). The municipal police officers of Paris and Ile-de-France will not participate in securing these Olympic Games if, in the meantime, we have not obtained our social component in full”, threatened David Quevilly.
These municipal police officers are particularly opposed to a change in the calculation of their compensation plan, which they believe would be less favorable to them, and to the failure to take into account a monthly compensation in the calculation of their retirement pension. The New Year’s Eve strike comes after a “reports strike” which took place in November. This movement followed an announcement from Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, offering municipal police new prerogatives but “without social compensation” according to the unions. The collective requests in particular the taking into account of bonuses in the calculation of retirement and better career progression.
Territorial civil servants recruited through competition by mayors, municipal police officers have seen their numbers double in twenty years to today reach nearly 26,000 agents, of whom around 60% are armed, according to the National Federation of Municipal Police Officers of France (FNPMF) . The primary mission of municipal police officers is to ensure the proper execution of the mayor’s police orders (public health, surveillance of buildings, security of residents and property, etc.). They are autonomous regarding contraventions but must report to their superiors the misdemeanor and criminal acts that they observe.