FRENCH CLERICAL RAIL STAFF UNDER ATTACK

www.rmt.org.uk :: april 2006 :: RMTnews 27 F rench retail, clerical and supervisory staff employed by the French national railways (SNCF) still work in the public sector. However, the company is being run as a private sector business in every way and station and clerical staff are not sheltered from these new methods of organisation. In 2001, SNCF began to fragment itself in a similar process started by British Rail to prepare the way for privatisation. Management is organising the railway into two parts, trains you can make money out of and trains you can’t make money from. The non-profitable trains are going to be part of the Public Transport Division. The profitable trains, mainly mainline ones, are in a business division: Voyages- France-Europe. However, SUD-rail and other rail unions succeeded in stopping this reorganisation for a while through strike action. Unfortunately, by the end of this year, SNCF will be completely restructured into sectors from top to bottom. Around 15,000 clerical and supervisory staff are directly employed by SNCF under two kinds of contracts. Most are employed under a national rail contract, while around 2,000 have less protection and are required to work until 60 before being able to retire. SNCF is also using 4,000 to 5,000 short-term contract workers, almost exclusively students. National rail contracts will give you better pensions, including retirement at 55, more protection, an easier career path and medical protection. SNCF also has 500 subsidiary companies but few of them deal directly with station matters. These international subsidiaries include Lyria between France and Switzerland, Elipsos International (France and Spain), Thalys (France, Belgium, Germany) and Eurostar Group (France, Belgium and UK). SNCF is using subsidiary companies to introduce new technology such as an internet travel agency, on-line ticket booking or to employ low paid customer-care staff. By using the subsidiary company EFFIA, SNCF is able to employ staff for all kinds of services in stations. At SNCF, retail/information staff are still one grade, which gives you the right to work in any station job anywhere on French railways. However, differences between these sectors are growing. For the suburban Paris network, SNCF is reducing the number of ticket offices by introducing a new generation of yearly tickets. Ticket office staff will then be used as ground station staff, conductors or for some hours as ticket-sellers. Rail workers have just rejected this proposal and organised a fight back, including a petition signed by commuters and by taking strike action on the first day of every month. Rail workers’ have forced management to discuss retail job developments, yet SNCF has maintained that it wants to reorganise stations and ticket distribution using new technology without human beings. Yet commuters will not receive a better service or a more efficent rail network as a result. Outside the suburban network, SNCF’s public transport branch deals with regional train services. Central government is losing powers to regional administrations, which are to decide how stations are organised and how they are funded. These regional councils want staff on stations but they may not be rail workers. Regional councils also have the right to choose another company to provide travel information. And that is going to be the next struggle. FRENCH CLERICAL RAIL STAFF UNDER ATTACK Emmanuelle Bigot from French rail union SUD outlines the attacks on clerical rail staff in an industry which is rapidly being prepared for full-scale privatisation SUD: Emmanuelle Bigot from French rail union SUD recently addressed the clerical and supervisory grades conference in Lille, France, hosted by the RMT European Passengers Services branch.