Macron buys police loyalty with big pay rise
French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has bowed to police demands for a pay rise in an effort to appease officers worn out after weeks of civil unrest.
Anger is spreading through police units that have had to deal with a series of often violent protests during the yellow-vest revolt against Macron. Dozens of officers have been injured while containing riots.
Officers on starting salaries of about €24,000 (NZ$40,400) a year will get an extra €1440 under the emergency package, a fresh government climbdown. Ministers had initially promised them a €300 bonus but ruled out an increase in wages. Police unions responded to that by ordering their members to work to rule and within 24 hours Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, had agreed to their demands.
Yves Lefebvre, general secretary of the Unite SGP police union, expressed satisfaction. ‘‘We wanted an immediate improvement in purchasing power,’’ he said. ‘‘Today we got what we wanted.’’ Castaner said the pay rise recognised ‘‘the gratitude of the nation’’ towards the officers. It will be phased in from next month and will cost the Treasury about €210 million (NZ$354m) a year.
In a further victory for police unions, Castaner agreed to open negotiations about paying officers for the 23 million hours of overtime they are due. Much of that has been accrued as a result of an increased workload after the renewed terrorist threat in France since 2015. Successive governments have added to police duties, asking them to protect schools, tourist monuments and other potential targets, but failed to pay them more for doing so.
Officials say it would cost €274m to pay officers the overtime – a sum described as beyond the reach of a country struggling to keep its public deficit under the 3 per cent ceiling that all members of the eurozone are supposed to stay within. That prospect has been shattered by the yellow-vest protest, which began in opposition to fuel duties and turned into a general outpouring of anger over living standards.
Macron sought to bring the revolt to an end with a €14 billion package of welfare rises and tax cuts for lower-middle and workingclass households. His measures will take France’s public deficit to 3.2 per cent next year, prompting police unions to conclude that with the purse strings open it was time to press their own case.
Unions have been claiming for years that the police are underfunded, forced to use cars that have hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock and work from decrepit stations. More than 50 officers have committed suicide this year in what is widely seen as a sign of a malaise in units confronted by an increasingly violent society.
The danger for Macron is that other public sector unions, including nurses, will feel emboldened.