At the call of the main unions, many National Education staff and more broadly the Civil Service are on strike.
This Thursday, there will probably no longer be a government in office and the Minister of National Education will resign and will only be able to carry on with current affairs. No more reforms, no more new measures, even announced in a roadmap. But the teachers’ strike is maintained.
Several organizations (CGT, CFDT, UNSA, FSU, Solidaires, CFE-CGC and FA-FP) called for a national day of “action” and “strike” on December 5, 2024 and despite the fall of the government, their action promises to be massively followed in the Civil Service, particularly in National Education. School teachers “responded to the call for a strike from trade union organizations” with nearly “65% of strikers announced” in the “first degree” on Thursday, December 5, the FSU-SNUIpp, the majority union, announced on December 3 of primary school.
In question? First of all, the extension of the waiting period for the civil service to three days, compared to one currently. This measure constitutes the main axis of protest in the Civil Service. “The change from 1 to 3 days of waiting time and the reduction in compensation for sick leave are punitive measures as if civil servants were guilty of being ill even though successive governments bear heavy responsibility for the deterioration of their working conditions and, ultimately, their health”, specifies a press release ofFSU, UNSA Education, CFDT EFRP, CGT Educ’action, SNALC, SUD Education. According to them, the reduction in salary will lead to a precariousness of agents, particularly among the poorest and women.
The strike will also be an opportunity to demand the abandonment of the reduction from 100% to 90% of sick leave compensation for civil servants. Also, “the 4,000 job cuts announced will further degrade the daily lives of our colleagues in schools, colleges and high schools. Public schools are at a tipping point, these measures will push them into the void”, criticizes the press release. .
Remember that these measures, presented by the Barnier government in its savings plan for the 2025 budget, will not be applied since the government’s budget will not be adopted as it would have liked.
The trade union organizations demand purely and simply the “withdrawal of the Kasbarian measures, the reestablishment of the GIPA, a revaluation of the index point and the elimination of the Pact. All staff must be revalued, without compensation and a real status must be created for AESH The job cuts must be canceled, positions must be created to reduce class numbers and to improve the working conditions of all staff,” we can read. As a reminder, the 2025 budget proposed by Prime Minister Michel Barnier provides for savings of 1.2 billion euros for the Civil Service.