These parliamentary collaborators struck for several hours Tuesday afternoon to denounce their working conditions and the lack of a representative body to negotiate with their management.
On strike to denounce their working conditions, several dozen parliamentary collaborators gathered in front of the National Assembly early in the afternoon of Tuesday, November 7. Communist deputies Fabien Roussel and Sébastien Jumel came to give them their support.
This call for a strike was launched by the CGT-Parliamentary Collaborators. “Those who practice the law do not respect it.”writes the union in a leaflet, thus targeting the deputies who “threatened with dismissal” A “colleague who tries to enforce the terms of their contract”.
In total, there are 2,000 parliamentary collaborators, including 1,000 in Paris, the rest are in constituencies. According to the CGT, the number of “unfair dismissals disguised as contractual terminations” is growing. “More than a year after the start of the 16th term in the National Assembly, the findings are alarming. 577 employer deputies […] make their own law in their office”denounces the CGT.
“What use are the law, collective agreements and consultations with trade union organizations if parliamentarians decide or not to respect the law as they wish?”
CGT-CPin a press release
The CGT demands “status” and “compulsory training”
The union explains that employees “encounter difficulties in enforcing the most basic rules of labor law”. For these parliamentary collaborators, the list of grievances is long. “There is unpaid or undeclared overtime, harassment, a right to disconnect which is not respected, that is to say messages at any time on any day without character emergency”explains Brian Blactot, of the CGT-CP.
The CGT calls for the creation of a “status for collaborators of parliamentarians and groups, the establishment of a salary scale, recognition of their qualifications and compulsory job descriptions”. The union is also demanding “mandatory training for employers” who manage often very young teams, especially when the pace is hectic. “This mandate is specialexplains Sébastien Ramage of the CGT-CP. You have 49.3s in every direction so there is sometimes a loss of meaning in the work. You have an intensification of the parliamentary rhythm and this has an impact on our work.”
A favorable period according to his colleague Manon Amirshahi for unfair dismissals: “Particularly after the pension reform, there is a moment when we pull on the rope. We absolutely do not respect the labor code.”
“We are going to rinse colleagues and then throw them away like trash. There is a huge turnover in parliamentary offices.”
Manon Amirshahi, general secretary of the CGT-CPat franceinfo
Communist deputies Fabien Roussel and Sébastien Jumel joined the gathering of parliamentary collaborators near the Palais Bourbon. “Neither shadow, nor little hand of anyone“, wrote on X Sébatien Jumel. “The former collaborator that I am wants to express my solidarity with these employees who are essential to parliamentary work, consubstantial with the development of the law”added the deputy for the 6th constituency of Seine-Maritime.