Insults, threats of suicide, violence... Attacks by France Travail agents will continue to soar in 2023

It is not only teachers who face an increase in violence in the exercise of their profession. Aggressions and incivility observed by France Travail staff are up 12% in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to an internal document consulted on Friday by AFP. In 2023, the public employment operator recorded nearly 16,000 reports of assault through the 900 France Travail agencies, compared to 14,200 in 2022, according to this document revealed by Politis.

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In detail, declared incivility increased by 17% (82% since 2019), verbal attacks by 8% (37% since 2019). The number of physical attacks remains stable and represents less than 1% of all reports. According to the document, “of the 143 physical attacks declared in 2023, 45 are proven physical attacks on an agent and occurred in an agency or nearby”. However, the reports do not only relate to violent acts against officers. Concerning expressions of suicidal intention by a user, the figure rises to 3,040 cases, an increase of 8.7% compared to 2022. This is three times more than in 2019, five years ago.

This progression is not new. Ex-Pôle Emploi has seen these acts increase for several years. 10,000 were thus re-enumerated in 2019 and nearly 14,000 in 2021. A problem tackled head-on by the institution which ensures that it is doing its utmost to “ensure the safety of agents and users”. However, the operator denies the existence of “an increase in violence specific to France Travail”, pointing out that these acts are increasing everywhere. And to cite as an example the announcement last September of a plan to protect agents by the Minister of Public Service, Stanislas Guerini. Above all, this increase demonstrates better consideration of all incivility in recent years, estimates the public employment operator. “Since 2021 we have implemented a culture of reporting,” we emphasize. This change in attitude follows the assassination of a councilor in Valence (Drôme) the same year.

Christophe Moreau, member of the national office of the SNU union (FSU), also points to a “rise in attacks for several years”. But puts forward another explanation: “this increase in reports of aggression has especially appeared since 2019, an increase that we can link to changes in unemployment insurance compensation,” he explains, specifying that his union “ has long called for a systematization of work accident declaration for each attack.

Last year, France Travail assured that it was putting in place measures “as part of a global strategy”. The operator then cited “the protection of sites with the strengthening of security equipment, the generalization of video protection in agencies and the development of alert tools”, so that agents can report “urgent situations”, or “training employees in de-escalation and tension management”. On the generalization of the implementation of video protection, Christophe Moreau estimated that this measure did not lead to a particular reduction in the number of attacks “in the agencies where this has been implemented”.