Lawyer Diane Reboursier explains the rules for requisitioning when there are strikes.
“We need an emergency” for the striking staff to be requisitioned, explains Tuesday March 21 on franceinfo Diane Reboursier, lawyer at the firm August Debouzy, specialist in labor law. Since Tuesday morning, striking personnel have been requisitioned at the Exxon Mobil oil depot in Fos-sur-Mer, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, affected by fuel shortages.
>> Pension reform: follow the latest information live
In Paris, garbage collectors on strike have also been requisitioned since last weekend to pick up waste in the capital. “It is not a question of returning to normal but really of ensuring the minimum service”says the lawyer.
franceinfo: What are the rules for requisitioning when there are strikes?
Diane Reboursier: The requisition is an attack on the right to strike, that’s for sure. But this is not the question. The question is whether this violation, which is very tightly regulated, is serious and disproportionate to the fundamental right to strike.
So, whether for refineries or for waste collection, it is provided for by the same article of the Local Authorities Code and there must be an emergency condition. The prefect must take a reasoned decision by explaining which people he is going to requisition, for which period and on which very specific functions at the post, that is to say at the person who will be requisitioned to perform a minimum service .
“It is not a question of returning to normal but really of ensuring the minimum service, as we have seen for example for service stations, for essential staff.”
Diane Reboursier, lawyerat franceinfo
Who determines when there is an emergency?
The prefect must motivate. If union strikers do not agree, they can appeal to the administrative court. And there, it is the judge who will determine if there was urgency and if all the conditions were met. This is a summary, an accelerated procedure. This is called the summary freedom and the administrative judge must rule within 48 hours. So it’s very quick and he will check whether there has been a breach of public security, health or peace and whether the requisition is proportionate, that is to say, for example, that all the strikers were not requisitioned on the site.
What are the limits ? Is it possible to block sites, or to deposit garbage in front of certain sites blocked by demonstrators?
At certain stages, we can arrive at illegal infringements. We can go beyond the right to strike. If we come to violence, assault or damage, there we lean towards a criminal offense. There may be penalties against strikers for these criminal offences.
Are these files particularly sensitive, does one side or the other sometimes hesitate to go to court?
It is very rare for employers to ask for requisitions. We never or almost never see it in practice. On the side of the unions, of course, and when they believe that the attack is disproportionate or too serious to the right to strike, they do not hesitate to go to court. There have been quite a few decisions rendered on the subject since 2020 and 2022 in particular.
We had a decision from Bordeaux a few years ago, which had noted when there was a risk of fire, which is the case today in Paris, of danger for children or of rodents which proliferate there, we could be in an emergency situation which in particular requires requisitions.
Does the State or other authorities have the right to call on service providers to carry out missions or should it only be necessary to requisition striking personnel?
Before requisitioning normally, we must try to find alternative solutions, such as calling on external service providers, and that will be seen by the judge.