2023-08-04 18:11:00
The Ministry of the Interior raised its tone on Friday against the use by the police of sick leave to protest against the imprisonment of their Marseille colleague, threatening to refuse them.
In separate notes, the director of the national police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux, and the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez, asked their services to refuse sick leaves which could be unjustified and to make deductions from wages.
The anger within the police erupted after the placement in pre-trial detention on July 21 of a police officer from the Bac de Marseille.
The latter, who had seriously injured a 22-year-old young man, Hedi, in the skull on the sidelines of the riots in early July, was kept in detention on Thursday by the investigating chamber of the Aix-en- Provence, seizure of a request for release.
Shortly after the policeman was imprisoned, some officials went on sick leave. Others responded to the call of the SGP Police Unit union and put themselves in “code 562”, a police jargon which means that they only assume emergency and essential missions.
The southern zone as well as that of the Paris police headquarters (the capital and the inner suburbs) were particularly impacted.
The angry movement, which started from the base in Marseille, took the police hierarchy, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and the police unions by surprise.
Faced with the risk of spreading this anger, Frédéric Veaux wished on July 24 the release of the imprisoned policeman, generally considering that a police officer, “before a possible trial, has no place in prison even if he may have committed serious faults or errors in the course of his work”.
This interview with the Parisian of the DGPN, which had received the approval of Gérald Darmanin, provoked an outcry on the left and within the judiciary.
“With discernment”
A few days later, the Minister of the Interior publicly supported the police and said he “understood” their “anger”.
But a week later, he decided to strike hard to stem the multiplication of sick leaves, even if these have decreased. Last Monday, they had fallen by 5% across the country, compared to the peak of the previous week, according to a police source. This drop was 13% in the southern zone and “up to 40%” in that of the Paris police headquarters, according to the same source.
The police were reminded that they did not have the right to strike and that any “concerted cessation of service or any collective act of characterized indiscipline may be sanctioned”.
Faced with an avalanche of sick leave over a short period, it was not possible to carry out medical checks, a police source explained.
This is why the ministry decided to resort to this procedure of refusal of certain judgments, accompanied by a deduction from salary for “absence of service done”.
This device was used in 2018 during a similar movement by prison staff, recalled a police source.
The police officers concerned by these refusals to take sick leave will have eight days to “establish the reality of the medical reason which justified their absence”.
However, assured a police source, these refusals will be decided with “discernment”. No question of sanctioning a sick official, it was added.
“The police hierarchy understands the fatigue and emotion of the police, particularly aware of the exceptional commitment that has been asked of them during the recent riots,” sources close to the DGPN and the PP told AFP.
“However, the police must ensure the continuity of the missions of the public security service”, they justified, oscillating between understanding and the need to harden the tone.
“We take note of the letters from the administration relating to sick leave. They are analyzed internally by specialists from our organization before any position is taken”, commented to AFP Eric Henry, national delegate of Alliance, a major police unions.
04/08/2023 18:10:12 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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