In order to relaunch its attractiveness, RATP is experimenting with a four-day week for certain employees

The Paris transport authority, faced with an increase in resignations, has adopted several measures to attract recruits.

RATP announced the signing of an agreement “to improve the quality of life at work” with three unions (FO, Unsa and CFE-CGC), Tuesday February 21, while the number of resignations is increasing. The experiment with the four-day week already began on January 18 and concerns lines 5, 7 and 9 of the metro and that of the RER B. This system, which does not reduce working time, only concerns station agents , but not the drivers.

It provides for a weekly organization for managers and controllers with four days worked and three days off, with an increase in daily working time of one hour and fifteen minutes. Station and station reception agents will work on a cycle of four days followed by two days of rest, with no increase in daily working time.

For the moment, 170 agents have volunteered to test the system during a first phase of 42 days, possibly renewable. The system will then give rise to feedback to find out whether it is extended or not. Ultimately, 5,000 agents could be affected.

The CGT refused to sign the agreement

The agreement includes other measures to promote “loyalty and attractiveness of the company”, according to the RATP, faced with staffing problems affecting the bus and metro supply. It provides for a “significant increase in our capacity to accommodate more employees”declared the group’s human resources director, Jean Agulhon.

To reduce travel time between home and work and “taking into account the price of real estate in the Paris region”, the RATP sets the objective of housing 1,200 families, compared to 860 today. It also plans to double the number of places offered in daycare for its employees, with hours adapted earlier in the morning and later in the evening. Finally, RATP will invest in 140 exoskeletons to equip twelve of its workshops and assist employees occupying the most difficult positions with maintenance.

“The negotiation was long and demanding, we have been on these issues for more than a year, so we are very satisfied to have been able to conclude this agreement”, greeted Jean Agulhon. The CGT-RATP, the group’s first union, however, refused to sign. “This agreement is a compilation of mandatory regulatory texts, from which management cannot escapehe reacted in a press release. The rest is a cartload of declarations of intentions.”