The right deplores a “dismal agreement” on the end of careers at the SNCF

At the end of a standoff, punctuated by the threat of a strike by controllers, the four unions representing SNCF and management finally signed an agreement on the end of their careers. Railway workers and drivers will be able to have an “early cessation of activity” thirty months before their retirement with fifteen months worked paid at 100% and fifteen not worked, at 75%. A “lamentable” outcome, deplores Bruno Retailleau, and which arouses criticism from Les Républicains (LR).

“It is an agreement which conscientiously unravels the achievements of the pension reform”, denounces the leader of the LR senators. “Finally,” adds David Lisnard, “the text raising the legal age of departure to 64, supposed to restore the accounts, sees its effects canceled at the SNCF. » A “new illustration that we are not all equal in the face of social rights: monopoly and blackmail prevail in France over fairness, common sense and dialogue”, denounces the LR mayor of Cannes. “It’s sending a very bad signal,” insists Bruno Retailleau. “The one which consists of saying that we can leave, be paid to do nothing in a public company under the authority of the State. » More deeply, Senator Philippe Tabarot questions the exposure of these employees to arduousness. “It existed in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century for railway workers. Today, there are other jobs that are just as difficult and do not have these same advantages,” said the elected official from Alpes-Maritimes.

The right points out more broadly the cost of such an agreement. “Can the company afford such a gift? », asks Philippe Tabarot. “It will cost tens of millions of euros: a cost that the SNCF will incur and which will be reflected in the cost of the train. We should not be surprised if, today, train tickets are expensive,” points out Bruno Retailleau. “At a time when we are asking for efforts to clean up public accounts, this agreement pushes the SNCF, and ultimately taxpayers and train users, a little further into the debt deficit,” adds David Lisnard. Furthermore, the right believes, this agreement could lead to a risk of “contagion”. “In public transport, among RATP colleagues, for example, this will create strong case law,” says Senator Philippe Tabarot. This precedent could be expensive where there have never been so few resources, and thus put the large public company in difficulty. »

This agreement, points out the right, also takes place in a very particular context: as the Paris Olympic Games approach, several SNCF and RATP unions have threatened a strike. “So we are buying social peace, it’s a scribble policy,” regrets Bruno Retailleau. The period “obviously has something to do with this agreement”, underlines Philippe Tabarot. The senator also recalls the bill adopted by the Upper House, aimed at limiting strikes in transport during certain periods (holidays, elections and referendums but also, events of "major importance"), and tabled by the boss of the centrist Union, Hervé Marseille. A way to counter “abuses of the right to strike”, concludes Tabarot.