A new end-of-career agreement at SNCF to “limit” the effects of pension reform

Unions and management signed an agreement on Monday allowing early retirement.

The four main unions and management approved, Monday April 22, a new “early termination of activity” system, allowing retirement, while remaining paid by the company. Concretely, the agreement proposes to split the end of careers into two periods. One where the employee works and is paid 100%. Then another, where he no longer works, but remains paid at 75%.

Generally speaking, railway workers will benefit from this system for 18 months, until their effective retirement. This could rise to 30 months for those who have jobs considered to be “painful”, such as switchers or drivers, and even up to 36 months for controllers. According to one of the group’s main unions, this involves modernizing a system that already exists, the CPA, “gradual cessation of activity”, which therefore becomes “early cessation of activity”.

“Attenuate the various reforms”

The objective according to the CGT, the group’s leading union, is to circumvent the pension reform. Even if this agreement does not completely annihilate the efforts of the 2023 reform, according to the railway workers’ federation of the union. Didier Mathis, secretary general of the UNSA railway, another signatory organization, speaks of mitigating the latest pension reform, but also the previous ones: “Since the various reforms, railway workers have increased their presence in the company. The age of eligibility, which today is 57 years… We see that the agents leave at 60. The The measures that accompany this agreement will make it possible to partially mitigate the various reforms that we have undergone.”

CGT, Unsa, CFDT and Sud Rail which sign an agreement with management. This is unanimity between social partners that is rare at SNCF. “I welcome a decisive first step in the implementation of our platform for social progress”, reacts Jean-Pierre Farandou, the president of the railway group. According to the company, the last agreement in this area dates back to 2008.

Concerning the cost of this new system, it will depend on the number of employees who will want to benefit from this system. It will be implemented on January 1 but the files will be able to be examined from July since there are 6 months of procedure, according to the CGT. This agreement seems to be a vector of social peace a few months before the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Controllers have had several strikes recently, notably in February, which penalized 150,000 travelers. The threat of a new movement recedes. Moreover, Sud-Rail decides not to call for work to stop next month.