Representatives of the 5.8 million public-sector employees, received on Friday at Matignon, judged the announcements on pay insufficient. The inter-union coalition is calling for a strike and mobilization on Tuesday, November 17. The CFDT, which had not issued this call before the meeting, is now joining it.
This reception at Matignon is a first in nearly 20 years for the trade-union organizations of the civil service.
The unions were expecting measures on wages, a few days after a minimum-wage increase limited to private-sector employees, and ahead of the day of action planned in the public sector on November 17.
The announced measures are intended to raise the base salary of the lowest-paid employees. For the organizations, they do not close the gap with the new minimum-wage level.
Despite these measures, about 660,000 employees will still receive the differential allowance intended to offset this gap, according to AFP. No civil servant may receive pay below the minimum wage.
The inter-union coalition considers that these adjustments do not meet the demand for a pay increase and is maintaining its call for November 17.
Before Friday's meeting, only the CFDT had not called for mobilization. It had chosen to pursue the talks to the end.
"The CFDT, which had chosen to negotiate to the end, is calling on people to join the November 17 mobilization in order to obtain real answers by mid-December,"the union said.
As early as July, the government had ruled out an increase in the value of the index point. It argued that a 1% rise would cost 2.4 billion euros.
According to AFP, Lecornu announced a one-month discussion. He will receive the unions again on December 11, after the professional elections in the civil service, to"seal progress as early as mid-December.".