€1.3mn for AFP and nothing for us?

On Thursday January 12th, management will hold a second meeting with unions in the annual cycle of mandatory wage talks (NAO). It has already informed us that it planned to give us practically nothing and the annual primes and promotions campaign will pretty much only include what it is obliged to do under the workplace agreement.

Despite the high level of inflation, management insists that the small raises awarded during the summer in the extraordinary round of wage talks is sufficient. It also points to a sharply degraded economic outlook. Gone is the confidence of “all the indicators are green,” now management says the agency is navigating “a rough sea”. Not mentioned in our CEO’s rather somber New Year’s greeting was that the Agency started off with some very good news: it dodged a €1.3M bullet.

How so? The government initially planned to eliminate a social tax break for the media in 2023. Just as journalists can use a special deduction for professional expenses on their tax return, even if they don’t have expenses, an equivalent exists on certain employee and employer social contributions. Management estimated that the removal of this tax break, called the "DFS", would cost the Agency 1.3M€ per year. After media lobbying, the removal of the tax break was postponed for one year, with a progressive implementation from 2024.

Furthermore, the Agency should post a profit of around 2.3M€ for 2022. It can’t give up a little for employees, as the government has urged companies to do?

SUD maintains its demand for a general wage increase to fully compensate for the loss of purchasing power due to inflation. For years we have been told that we must make sacrifices. Enough is enough! There is no question of accepting this reduction in our purchasing power at a time when the government is trying to impose yet another pension counter-reform, which would mean that we would have to work longer for an ever-lower pension.

Defending our wages means defending the level of our pensions!

Paris, January 10, 2023
SUD-AFP (Solidarity-Unity-Democracy)
contact@sud-afp.org