The objective of “harmonization” of working time in the territorial public service pursues “an objective of general interest”, considers the Constitutional Council in its decision.
Do local authorities have to make their employees work 35 hours a week? The Constitutional Council has considered this issue and on Friday ruled that the provisions of a 2019 law which imposes 35 hours of work per week in communities are constitutional. A victory for the government against the communities of Val-de-Marne who had requested the regulator. The communist mayors of several municipalities had indeed filed a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) on this subject, after having been assigned by the prefect of the department to enforce the law on the 35 hours.
The goal of “harmonisation“of working time in the territorial public service continues”an objective of general interest“, Estimates the Constitutional Council in its decision. A purpose which authorizes the executive to “subject local authorities or their groupings to obligations and charges“, is it further specified. The Public Service Transformation Law of August 6, 2019 provides that local authorities have the obligation, from January 1, 2022, to comply with the 35-hour rule. And therefore put an end to these derogatory regimes which allow certain employees to work for a shorter period.
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«attractiveness” posts
This decision is badly received on the side of the communist mayors, who reacted in a press release. “This decision is an attack on the power of mayors, but also and above all on the working conditions of agents», Indicates the mayor (Left Front) of Fontenay-sous-Bois, Jean-Philippe Gautrais.
His communist colleague from Bonneuil-sur-Marne, Denis Oztorun Omur, castigated to AFP a “violation of the free administration of municipalities“. He says he wants to offer in return “new rightsto its agents, and ensure that the1h30 of additional weekly work” in his municipality are used for “sports, cultural or training practices promoting cohesion and well-being at work“. Same “reflection in progress” in Vitry-sur-Seine, where the PCF mayor, Pierre Bell-Lloch, assures that the application of the law involves “nine to ten days offless for its agents. “It makes us less attractive for recruitment” It front of “private companies that can give the days off they want“, he told AFP.
«The disputed provisions are limited, in terms of employment, organization of work and management of their personnel, to framing the competence of local authorities to set the rules relating to the working hours of their agents.“, challenges the Constitutional Council to support its decision. “Local authorities that had maintained derogatory regimes remain free, like other authorities, to define specific work regimes to take into account constraints linked to the nature of the missions of their agents.“, he adds.
According to the latest report on the state of the public service, full-time territorial agents declared in 2020 an annual working time of 1514 hours, therefore lower than the 1607 annual hours, compulsory since January 1, 2022.
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