Civil service rises imposed in France

The French government last month imposed pay increases for the next two years after negotiations with unions representing 5.2m civil servants, in central and local government and the hospitals had broken down.

The increases are 1.2% in 2001 - 0.5% in May and 0.7% in November - and 1.2% in 2002 (0.5% in March and 0.7% in November). There are additional payments this year for the lowest paid worth an average of 0.5%. The government states that these increases should be enough to match inflation running at 1.3% in March.

The unions were looking for larger increases particularly because of they way their pay fell behind inflation in 2000, rising by only 0.5% compared with inflation of 1.6%. They organised one-day strikes in January and March to back their demands. However, the government argues that civil servants' pay rose by 1.1% more than inflation in 1998 and 1999 and so there is no ground to make up.

The imposed pay rises come after the failure of negotiations last year on the introduction of a 35-hour week. It will still come into effect, as planned, in January 2002 but its introduction will be arranged at local and organisational level.

In the longer term the French government wants to modernise the civil service and its payment structure but this most recent failure to reach a negotiated settlement makes this major task more difficult.