While the Olympic flame keeps pace with its journey through the towns and villages of France, Paris continues its transformation for the opening ceremony. And while the period of the Olympic Games, running from July 26 to August 11, requires particular involvement of certain professions, essential to the smooth running of the event (police officers, doctors, bus, train, metro and even garbage collectors, etc.) , obtaining bonuses still seems problematic.
On Tuesday May 21, SNCF railway workers went on strike to put pressure on their management to obtain better bonuses, on the eve of a decisive meeting.
The day after this widely followed social movement in Ile-de-France, a round table “lasting a little over four hours” with the four trade union organizations representing the SNCF (CGT Cheminots, UNSA Ferroviaire, SUD-Rail and CFDT Cheminots ) took place on Wednesday in the presence of CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou. At the end of this round table, SNCF management proposed a daily bonus of 95 euros gross for railway workers who will work during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, whatever their profession, with a ceiling of 1,900 euros. The unions have until June 4 to give their response. Before this announcement, the SUD-Rail union had deplored that only compensation of 50 euros gross per day worked during the competitions had been provided.
On Tuesday, employees of the Aéroports de Paris (ADP) group also walked off the job, to obtain “homogeneous bonuses”. “The 1,500 volunteers who will come to strengthen the workforce are entitled to 70 euros gross per shift worked, but not the employees present at the airport all year round, it is unacceptable,” said Daniel Bertone, secretary general of the CGT-ADP in the columns of Parisian.
Up to 2,500 euros bonus at the RATP
Other professions, including doctors, garbage collectors and even civil servants, have already negotiated their bonuses. According to our colleagues at RTL, these bonuses should cost between 75 and 235 million euros. Or 5% of the total Olympic budget.
The best off should be RATP employees on vacation during the two Olympic weeks. Metro drivers obtained bonuses ranging from 1,600 to 2,500 euros last week.
Among the police, the 35,000 police officers and gendarmes mobilized will receive 1,000 euros for those who reduce their leave period. In detail, it will be 1,600 euros for those who are in a department hosting an Olympic event and 1,900 for those who are in Ile-de-France. In AP-HP hospitals, only staff mobilized as reinforcements will be eligible for bonuses. It will be 800 euros per week for a maintenance worker, and up to 2,500 euros for a doctor. Garbage collectors also recently reached an agreement with Paris town hall, for bonuses ranging from 600 to 1,900 euros depending on the additional level of workload.
But the negotiations are far from over for everyone. On May 16, at least 1,800 firefighters, supervised by large numbers of law enforcement officers, marched through the streets of Paris to obtain a bonus for the Olympic Games. “One of our immediate concerns is equality in treatment in relation to the Olympic bonus. We want to be treated like the police and the gendarmes,” Sébastien Delavoux, union representative of the CGT Sdis, told AFP.