Archive:Public employment - France

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<Introduction: simple language, not too long, kind of executive summary>

Regional and administrative organisation

Introduction

The French Republic was constituted as a semi-presidential, social and democratic state of law, governed by its universal motto: Freedom, Equality and Fraternity.

System of government

The Executive Power is shared between the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister.

The President of the Republic is elected by popular vote for a period of 5 years. The Constitution gave the President important powers, such as arbitration between the high level institutions, defence of the integrity of the territory, appointment of some senior positions and enactment of laws.

The Prime Minister is appointed by the President (who can dismiss him). If he does not need to be sworn in by the National Assembly, the Prime Minister is accountable to the Assembly. The Prime Minister also has constitutional powers such as mediation in the budgetary process and management of the administrative system responsible for implementing national public policies.

Regional organisation

Local administration is divided into three levels: Communes, Departments and Regions,

In the framework of a decentralization process launched in 1981, region and department as state administrative districts were differentiated from their local authority status, elected by popular vote. This was all accompanied by a transfer of powers.

The Communes, led by a Mayor, have basic service and democratic representation functions. Services of the prefecture and local state services were transferred to the Departments: health and social services, infrastructures, agriculture, etc. The Regions powers consist mainly on economic planning and education.

Public administration

The French Republic is a parliamentary democracy, whose central government consists of various Ministries, which in turn have regional Departments and Directorates. The Regions and the Departments have jurisdiction over questions concerning training, transport and public works, etc.

Public Employment Structure

France has three branches of the civil service (central government, local government and hospital). Each branch is governed by a specific set of provisions, which are applied nationwide. The General Regulations for all three branches were unified by the Law of 13 July 1983 (Title I – General Regulations), which however, defined and maintained the specificities of each branch.

Members of the judiciary and the armed forces are governed by special regulations.

Statistics: The French civil service employs 5.3 million people (21.1% of the active population) and is organised into 3 Levels: State Civil Service, with 2.484 million employees (47% of the total) distributed into Ministries (2.,193 m.) and Public Administrative Establishments (0.292 m); Territorial Civil Service, (1.748 m. which is equivalent to 33% of the total) and the Hospital Civil Service, (over 1 m., representing 20% of the total), of which 94% work in hospitals and 6% in homes and other offices.

By Services. At a Central Level, the average age of employees is 43.8 years old; women represent 50.1% of employees and 16,1% of senior positions.. At a Territorial Level: Age: 44.4 years old; Women: 61% and 18% of senior positions;. At a Hospital Level: Age: 42.9 years old; Women: 76.4% and 37,9% of senior positions.

For the three branch of the civil service, disabled represent 4,5% of the employees.

Ratio of civil servants/inhabitants: 70.9/1,000 (including overseas). In the Central Service, 17.4% of women work part-time, compared with 2,9% of men.

Retirement: The average retirement age in 2008 was 59 years old for the central government civil servants. Between 2006 and 2007, 4.5% of civil servants enjoyed geographic mobility, whilst 3.3% had professional mobility with a change in group. 6,5% changed administrative organization and 0,3% had structural mobility with organization transfer.

The Civil Service is divided into 3 Categories according to the position: Category A (directors, 29.7%), Category B (intermediate professionals, 24.3%) and Category C (employees and operators, 46%). The Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts, Civil Service and State Reform is responsible for the civil service, human resource management and the salary policy.

Rights, obligations, principles and values

The main rights of civil servants are: the right to strike, join a union, ongoing training, participation, remuneration, protection and freedom of opinion (whether political, trade-union-related, philosophical or religious). Their main obligations are: professional confidentiality, professional discretion and informing the public, performing the tasks entrusted to them, following orders from superiors, etc.

Career-based system and training

Although public employees can be recruited on a contractual basis (16%), they are normally recruited via selection processes. Training is provided at on-going training centres and others that specialise in international cooperation: National School of Administration (ENA), Regional Administration Institutes that offer training for standard government posts and the Centre for European Studies (Strasbourg). There are also ministerial centres that provide training for specific posts.

The civil servant assessment procedure is set out in Decree 682, on the classification and promotion of civil servants in administrative scales. Assessment is carried out by the direct hierarchical superior and is based on performance as well as professional development prospects.

The civil servant is informed of the result of the assessment. It is carried out in each Ministry, in accordance with the functions and corps to be managed, whereby it may adopt its own classification system in agreement with trade unions. Classification is the responsibility of the Head of Service. The Decree provides a regulation defining the procedure to follow, classifications, notes, etc. for the specific characteristics of each Ministry.

The assessment may be annual or twice yearly and is based on the rules established for each administration. It may be reviewed on the civil servant’s request, who is also entitled to appeal to the administrative jurisdiction.

The importance of seniority in career development has been reduced in favour of merit. The result of the assessment serves for career advancement by means of a change in level or grade. Each grade is divided into levels and it is possible to go up a level in the same grade. There are 3 types of grade advancement: By authority appointment, by examination, by competition.

Remuneration

Remuneration is based on the employee’s grade and the rank of the position occupied, or in other words, for belonging to a corps and the rank within each corps. The rank is linked to a base remuneration according to the civil servant’s position on a common scale. In addition to grade, rank and position, remuneration consists of compensation for residence, a family supplement and legal compensation. Therefore, the main remuneration is determined by a civil servant’s grade within his/her corps and a rank associated to a gross index or classification index, to which a salary index that varies between 280 and 821 is assigned. Annual salary is calculated by multiplying this salary index by a percentage.

A harmonised, streamlined and more individualised bonus system, known as the “Function and Performance Bonus” is currently being introduced, in which remuneration has a functional part that takes account of the civil servant’s responsibilities, and another that covers a person’s individual performance, which is evaluated in individual interviews.

Social dialogue and system of representation

In theory, trade unions do not have the legal authority to initiate collective bargaining except for salary increases. In reality, the practice of bargaining has grown and deepened over the past ten years. During negotiations, the government is represented by the Ministry for the Civil Service (central government civil service), the Ministry for Health (hospital civil service) and the Ministry for Local Authorities (local government civil service). Employee representatives come from the eight major trade unions. Subjects discussed include working conditions, health, remuneration, etc. Although the agreements reached are not binding, the political weight that they represent is definite. The Government may act unilaterally in the case of failure to reach agreement.

Within the framework of social dialogue reform, in 2008, the six most representative trade unions: French Democratic Confederation of Labour, French Confederation of Christian Workers, Union of Executives, General Confederation of Labour, General Confederation of Labour - Force Ouvrière, National Union of Autonomous Unions signed the “Bercy Agreements” in order to strengthen the role of bargaining and social dialogue between civil service branches and between ministries, underscore the legitimacy of technical committees and advisory bodies, and reinforce the rights and means for trade union action.

Collective bargaining is centralised on a national level; and includes salary increases within the limits set out in the Budget by the Ministry for Finance. It is characterised by the obligation to consultation prior to decision-making. According to the recent “Bercy Agreement”, a pact between trade unions and employers is considered to be valid if 2 trade unions, with a minimum of 20% of the votes of the entire union representation, sign it and it is not rejected by any organization that represents a majority of the votes.

Senior civil servants

There is not a formally differentiated group of senior executives although some special conditions apply to senior civil servants : (Summary Table)

The recruitment system for executive positions is open to all candidates. Experience, skills and a university degree are valued. Senior civil servants are appointed by the President of the Republic or the Council of State for a term of 5 to 7 years. The objectives of senior civil servants may be set out in a Management Agreement in accordance with the requirements of the unit. There are also special Executive Training programmes.

The Office for the Government as Employer coordinates the remuneration of senior civil servants. Performance related bonuses (up to a maximum of 8% of the annual basic salary) were introduced in 2009 for senior civil servants. Normally their working hours are longer although they have the same rights as other public employees in relation to maternity and parental leave. Tele-working, part-time work and flexible working times are possible but seldom used by executives.

Recent reforms and prospects

Finland is currently in the process of a vast reform of its public sector. The Productivity Programme has been underway since 2003 with a purpose of systematically improving the productivity of the State. The Relocation Programme aims to allow functions to be transferred from Helsinki to other regions, which involves the relocation of 4,000 to 8,000 jobs so as to ensure a more balanced development of the country. The Reform of Regional Administration entered into force at the beginning of 2010 and seeks to streamline and collect together the various state organizations in the regions The Reform of the Municipal sector seeks to safeguard the provision of basic services through creating bigger and more sustainable municipalities.

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