The Constitutional Council ruled this Friday in accordance with the Constitution the provisions of a 2019 law that imposes 35 weekly hours of work in the communities, a victory for the government over the elected officials of Val-de-Marne who had petitioned the regulator. The objective of “harmonization” of working time in the territorial public function pursues “an objective of general interest”, considers the Constitutional Council in its decision. It authorizes the executive to “subject local authorities or their groups to obligations and burdens,” add the “wise men” in their decision.
The Constitutional Council thus rejects the request of the municipalities of Bonneuil-sur-Marne, Fontenay-sous-Bois, Ivry and Vitry-sur-Seine. They felt that the government had violated the principle of free administration of local authorities by forcing them to align with the 35-hour week system. “This decision is an attack on the power of the mayors, but also and above all on the working conditions of the agents,” reacted the mayor (Left Front) of Fontenay-sous-Bois, Jean-Philippe Gautrais, in a statement. of press.
His communist colleague from Bonneuil-sur-Marne, Denis Oztorun Omur, criticized an “attack on the free administration of municipalities” and announced that he wanted to offer “new rights” to his agents in return. He wants the “1h30 of additional weekly work” of his municipality to be used for “sports, cultural or training practices that favor cohesion and well-being at work”.
“It makes us less attractive for hiring”
Same “reflection in progress” in Vitry-sur-Seine, where the mayor of the PCF, Pierre Bell-Lloch, assures that the application of the law implies “nine to ten days of leave” less for his agents. “It makes us less attractive for hiring” compared to “private companies that can take as many days off as they want,” he argued. For the Constitutional Council, “the contested provisions are limited, in terms of employment, work organization and staff management, to framing the competence of local entities to set the rules relating to the working hours of their agents.”
The case will now return to the Council of State, which had referred the priority issue of constitutionality in June to the Constitutional Council. Approved in the summer of 2019, the public service transformation law obliges local authorities to abolish working time regimes that repeal 35 hours as of January 1, 2022.
According to the latest report on the state of the civil service, full-time territorial agents declared in 2020 an annual working day of 1514 hours. During the public hearing, the representative of the Government had also cited figures from the General Directorate of Local Entities, according to which on January 1, 9,050 communities had maintained a derogatory regime “at 35 hours.”
Source: BFM TV
