France - no rise for civil servants

Unions representing public servants in France were told last month that there would be no pay increase in 2003.

This pay freeze follows two years of below inflation rises - a staged 1.2% in 2001 and a staged 1.3% in 2002 and means that over three years there has been an increase in public service pay of only 2.5%, while prices have risen by 5.6%.

The prospects are little better for 2004, with the government offering an increase of only 0.5% from January, at a time when inflation is rising by 1.9% (October 2003).

The government argues that it cannot afford to pay more, as it needs to cut the budget deficit.

Jean-Paul Delevoye, the French government minister responsible for public administration made two new proposals to the unions:

* setting up an observatory to examine the development of civil service pay and its purchasing power; and

* drawing up new rules for future negotiations at a conference in January.

However, following the government's failure to deliver an increase this year, the unions are reluctant to become involved in new arrangements for the future. All seven unions involved wrote to the minister this month stating that they would be boycotting the new institutions.