No pay rise for public workers
Minister says financial crisis will not allow salary increases but she offers help for lowest-paid staff
PUBLIC workers will not get a pay rise in 2013 but the government has said it intends to rethink the pay scales to give a boost to lower-paid staff.
Civil servants have seen the index point for their salaries – the base on which they are paid – frozen since 2010 but Public Services Minister Marylise Lebranchu said after a day of talks that the financial crisis meant there could be no large-scale changes for fonctionnaires.
She told unions that she would look again at helping the lowest-paid, on band C, and try to improve the mobility of staff between offices. “But there is no question of unfreezing the index point for 2013; this is not consistent with the trend of public finances.”
Increasing the index point one notch would cost €800 million for central government workers alone and €1.8 billion if social security and local authority workers were included.
Unions welcomed the moves to help the lower-paid but rejected the “unacceptable blockage” of salary increases and kept up pressure for changes to the journée de carence which sees them lose a day’s pay for the first day of any sickness absence [in the private sector, it is three days].
The Parti Socialist criticised the introduction of the measure at the start of last year but no decision was taken in yesterday’s meeting. Unions are expected to meet this afternoon to see if they can find a common position – with the CGT already having said it is planning a new strike, having held a first one this year on January 31.
Related story: Fonctionnaires on strike over pay
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