Wages, Forfait Jours: AFP’s management loses at court

The Paris Court of Appeal handed down two separate rulings on September 19 ordering AFP to raise salaries for staff with French contracts and annulling forfait jours contracts for journalists under the 2017 collective bargaining agreement, the “Grand Accord”. These latest defeats demonstrate what trade unions which oppose the Agency’s poor management can achieve for staff as well as the cost of management choosing to ignore the law.

Wage hikes for everyone!

The first ruling concerns the illegal freeze of wages since 2012. La CGT, FO and SUD filed lawsuits to obtain raises negotiated for the national print media (SPQN) for the years 2013 and 2014. We sought nothing more or less than AFP honor its contractual obligations for non-journalists and the established practice for journalists.

Concretely, AFP must:

▪ raise base wages by 0.4% from March 1, 2013 for all staff with French contracts;
▪ raise base wages by 0.5% from May 1, 2013 for all staff with French contracts;
▪ raise base wages by 0.5% from April 1, 2014 for laborers and technical staff, and finally and from May 1, 2014 for employees, administrative staff and journalists.

In addition, management must also increase other parts of our salaries like the prime spéciale. For details, see the text of the ruling.

The botched, and illegal, Grand Accord

The second ruling concerns the key measure of the Grand Accord: the forfait jours for all journalists. SUD repeatedly warned of the legal risks of this measure and the Court of Appeal ruling proves us right. The Grand Accord was poorly negotiated by those who signed it and the Court urged trade unions to renegotiate the forfait jours.

SUD will soon provide more information about the rulings and their consequences.

Paris, September 19, 2019
SUD-AFP (Solidarity-Unity-Democracy)
contact@sud-afp.org