It is a dialogue of the deaf which has now lasted for several months between the Paris City Hall and the municipal agents.
The lifeguards are angry. After several strikes launched since January, and eager to make their disagreement heard on the reform of the public service – which caused them to lose eight days of leave out of 33 -, they decided to bang their fists on the table by threatening a closure of all municipal swimming pools this summer. The CGT City of Paris has filed a strike notice in Parisian swimming pools and all sports establishments which runs from July 1 to August 31. “Despite our repeated calls for negotiation, despite months of mobilizations, the City and in this case our Department of Youth and Sports remains deaf to the demands of the agents“, details the organization in a press release.
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Increase in working hours and reduction in holidays
It is a dialogue of the deaf that has been going on for several months now between the Paris City Hall and municipal officials and more extensively since the law on the transformation of the public service of August 2019. Before this new regulation, the lifeguards of the public service benefited from a reduction in their working time of less than 35 hours per week due to the difficulty of their job. They were also entitled to 33 days of country leave as well as 61 days of RTT. With the reform of the Civil Service, lifeguards must work 43 hours more per year and are only entitled to 25 days of paid vacation. The number of RTT days remains unchanged.
Despite the adjustments made by the City of Paris, supposed to deal with this change imposed on a national scale, the trade union organization denounces insufficient actions. It formally opposes the increase in working time and denounces wages “lower than ever with galloping inflation». «Difficulty of screen work not recognized», «toxicity“of the work environment, “despised educators“, the CGT deplores”lack of negotiation» with the City of Paris. When contacted, the City did not respond to requests from the Figaro.
Faced with the strong heat waves forecast for this summer in France, this strike movement could prove to be very restrictive for the inhabitants of the capital. Not to mention the many summer activities organized by the City and supervised by municipal agents, which could be threatened. The CGT says it is open to negotiation and expects the City to provide it with “serious consideration”, namely in priority to remove the increase in working time and discuss the revaluation of wages. “The city leaves us no choice. We know very well that those who go to the municipal swimming pool in the summer are those who cannot go on vacation, but the discussions are not progressing“says Voussad Challal, lifeguard and communication secretary of the CGT EVSPC Ville de Paris.
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