The prefect had decided to requisition medical laboratory staff after a call for a strike launched to demand wage increases. His arrest was suspended by the administrative court of Rennes.
The administrative court of Rennes suspended the execution of a decree by which the prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine had requested staff from medical analysis laboratories, responsible in particular for Covid tests, indicates an order from the judge in chambers.
Contested by the National Federation of Chemical Industries CGT and the National Federation of Pharmacy Workers, this decree provided for the requisition of 55 staff members of the company Laboratoires de Biologie Réunis (LBR), until Tuesday.
The prefect had issued this decree Thursday two days after a strike call launched to demand wage increases to compensate for inflation.
Several dozen employees of the Biological Laboratories gathered had demonstrated on Friday in Rennes and the strike was to continue during the weekend.
The trade union federations argued that the scope of the measure presented “a disproportionate character with regard to the number of people required which does not aim to provide only a minimum service” but “to ensure the continuity of the normal activity of the company”with the requisition of 55 of the company’s 160 employees on sites in the conurbation.
“It has not been demonstrated that the extent of the strike movement (…) would be likely to have an impact on the activity of analyzing medical samples (…) such that it would be likely to immediately and seriously jeopardize the functioning of the health system within the agglomeration”indicates the judge in chambers in his order.
“It has also not been established that the extent of the requisition measure in dispute, which globally targets at least one third of the total workforce of the Laboratoires de Biologie Réunis company, would be proportionate to the imperative of ensuring , even at the level of the agglomeration alone, patient safety and continuity of care”, continues the judge in his order.
By issuing this decree, the prefect carried “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the fundamental freedom constituted by the right to strike and that it is therefore necessary to suspend the execution of the decree”estimated the magistrate.