Backtrack for the government. The Minister of Civil Service Guillaume Kasbarian announced this Friday morning on RMC that he was abandoning his predecessor’s idea of removing categories A, B and C which govern the salary scale of civil servants. “This project, this merger of categories A, B and C, has been put aside,” he declared, adding that he wanted to “concentrate on other subjects”. The announcement was made the day before to the unions during a tense meeting after which two of the main organizations called a strike.
“I have heard the arguments of the unions and agents who tell me that these are historical benchmarks and that the merger would involve complexities, reluctance and complicated things to implement,” he explained. . “We will not make these elements prosper. »
A structuring element in the careers of 5.7 million public officials, the category system classifies civil servants according to their level of diploma. Category C, the lowest paid, is accessible without a diploma, with a CAP, a BEP or a college certificate, category B with a baccalaureate and category A with a Bac + 2 or Bac + 3 level depending on the branches of the public service. But many agents today are too qualified for the category in which they work.
Their removal was one of the flagship measures of a reform by Guillaume Kasbarian’s predecessor, Stanislas Guérini, who wanted to present it in the fall, before the dissolution of the National Assembly put an end to this project.
No Gipa bonus either
At the same time, Guillaume Kasbarian confirmed that the index point, which makes it possible to calculate the remuneration of all civil servants, will not be revalued for 2024. “The budgetary context does not allow us to increase the index point “, he said. The Minister of Public Service also affirmed that the guaranteed individual purchasing power bonus (Gipa) will not be paid this year. This is usually an amount intended to compensate for inflation.
For the minister, however, there are “other subjects” on which we must work “in particular a revision of the salary scale”, an “upgrade of professions”, an “improvement of working conditions” and “housing for civil servants”. “. “We are going to carry out all this work in a spirit of dialogue and listening, without promising the moon,” added the Minister of the Civil Service.
Concerning the government’s desire to increase the waiting period to three days in the civil service, Guillaume Kasbarian confirmed his “determination” and that of the government to “carry out a plan to combat absenteeism” which has “increased alarmingly.” According to him, this is part of “a global plan to combat and prevent absences”. The latter also includes “measures to improve working conditions”, “debureaucratization” and “functional protection”.