The French government plans to overhaul the state-owned railway firm SNCF, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced on Monday.

SNCF's debts run to about €45 billion ($55.52 billion), which puts it in an "alarming situation," Phillipe said, adding that he was "not looking for a fight."

Few French governments have dared take on the powerful railway unions, but French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to leverage his political capital to push through reforms as part of his wider strategy of freeing up a stagnant labor market.

"Whether or not they take the train, the French are paying more and more for a public service that works less and less well," he said, adding that running a French train is 30 percent more expensive than elsewhere in Europe.

"It's time to dare to go ahead with a reform the French people know is needed," he said.

A traveler waits on a platform at the Saint-Charles station in Marseille, during a national strike by SNCF railway staff in 2014

Avoiding privatization

A report submitted to the government earlier in February recommended the company's debt be reallocated within the public sector. Philippe said this would happen only if the company reduced its generous employment terms.

The government said it will consider turning the state operator into an autonomous company backed by public money, but it would never be privatized.

"It's a shared effort. The state will live up to its duties before the end of its mandate to ensure the economic viability of railway system," he said.

The government, he added, was ready to push the reforms through by decree, avoiding a vote in parliament. Many have accused Macron of bypassing the democratic process.

Philippe said fuller details of the reforms would be set out in March.

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Call for strikes

Unions have called a strike for March 22 and workers at SNCF, a stronghold of the communist-backed CGT union, have warned of more possible strikes.

Four unions — CGT, Sud, Unsa and CFDT — meet on Tuesday to decide on a response, with the CFDT urging the others to join in a rolling strike from March 12.

One concession could reportedly be the ending of job-for-life contracts and generous pensions applying only to new recruits. Under the terms of the special rail worker's status, staff are given a job for life, seven-hour days and generous pensions.

Rail employees have enjoyed preferential terms since nationalization of the railways in 1937. More than 90 percent of SNCF staff — 140,000 people — have the special rail worker status.

In 1995, SNCF unions undertook three weeks of strikes that forced then prime minister, Alain Juppe, to drop his welfare reforms and resign.

Since then no French politician has broached the idea of reform in the sector.

Macron has said his ambition is to cut what he considers to be a bloated public sector and reform France's relatively generous labor market.

France's train network is considered among the best in Europe, ranked seventh in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index by consultants BCG.

A bloated public sector

In September last year Macron pushed through labor law changes, part of a package of executive orders his government said would decentralize collective bargaining. The reforms were seen by some as fulfilling a campaign pledge by Macron, who won office in May.

The government is also targeting a cut in the number of short-term employment contracts, which make up the majority of new contracts.

France's unemployment rate stands at of 9.7 percent, despite faster rising growth.

jbh/aw (Reuters, AFP)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>"The measures proposed by the government bring us towards the atrophy of the railway system. Today, it is the public service, and the government wants to abandon it. The state announced that it won't close the small [railway] lines, delegating responsibility to the regions, but it's impossible: when we talk about the policy of territorial development, the state has to take the responsibility… Today, this disengagement of the state from the public service does not satisfy us," Meyer said.

On Monday, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe unveiled plans to reform the SNCF, part of which would entail getting rid of the rail workers' special status that has been in place since 1930s. Philippe noted the "alarming condition" of the SNCF, whose debt now stands at some 50 billion euros ($61.6 billion), and called for opening the railway sector to competition in order to boost the quality of services and lower ticket prices. French media have also reported that rail reform could lead to the closure of less frequented railway routes.

The official stressed that the results demonstrated by those countries where the railway sector was open to competition were not satisfying.

"When it [the railway sector] was open to competition in Germany, they saw a real social dumping, which hit the employees' salaries following the creation of 400-euro jobs," Meyer underlined.

"Clearly today the competition, as wanted by [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron isn't aimed at anything but opening this sector to big groups, enabling them to come and take the public subsidies designated to make trains move," the official underlined.

He also commented on Philippe's statement that he would welcome public debates on the issue as well as a discussion in parliament. If the government faces opposition in parliament, it will push the reform by a decree.

"We'll wait. He [Philippe] announced wide consultations. It's not that we don't want it, but consultations with a Damocles sword of a decree hanging over our heads is not the kind of negotiations we wish for. We'd like to have a big public debate, taking into account the point of view of the railway sector [employees], so that everyone could express their expectations," Meyer pointed out.

The government's plans prompted French rail unions to call for mass protests. Meyer vowed to participate in a nationwide protest that is scheduled for March 22.

The special status of railroad employees provides a range of benefits for railway workers, including early retirement. Philippe has said that the French government wanted to finalize the major points of the reform before summer.

The SNCF secured "the revenue of 33.5 billion euros up 4.2 percent thanks to the commercial dynamic that has generated a strong growth of passenger and cargo traffic" in 2017, according to the company's press release, issued on Monday.

The SNCF noted, however, that the financial and economic performance of the company in 2017 was "not sufficient in light of the situation of SNCF Reseau," the SNCF branch, which owns and services the country's railway network.

SNCF Reseau's net debt of 46.6 billion euros grew by 1.7 billion euros in 2017, while its structural debt increased by 2.1 billion euros in the same period.</s>Teenage Corbynistas who are too young to have known the joys of nationalised British Rail can look across the channel to learn about the merits of socialised transport:

“The dilapidated network, delays, abysmal debt … The situation is alarming, not to say untenable. The French, whether they take the train or not, pay more and more for a public service that works less and less well…”

So says Prime Minister Edouard Philippe about the state of SNCF, France’s publicly owned railway. He plans to tackle the railway union’s amazingly comfy conditions for workers. He wants to “align its costs with European standards”, when “running a train in France costs 30% more than elsewhere”. The unions suspect he is preparing to privatise the company, he denies it, he is just going to reform the railways to be run more like a private company. The railway union has called a national strike for March 22…</s>PARIS (Reuters) - The French government will shake up the debt-ridden SNCF railway company, ending the special employment rights that its workers have enjoyed for decades in sweeping reforms to be thrashed out in the coming months, the prime minister said on Monday.

The overhaul of the SNCF, whose debts total more than 45 billion euros ($55.52 billion), is one of the more politically risky reforms being rolled out under President Emmanuel Macron, and labor unions have already threatened protests from March. 

 "The situation is alarming, not to say untenable," Edouard Philippe said of the company which employs some 260,000 staff, many of whom have jobs for life and, in some cases, the right to retire a decade earlier than other public workers.

 Philippe said new SNCF recruits would no longer enjoy such perks and would be subjected to national labor laws. 

 The government will launch a debate in parliament in mid-March but, in the event of wide opposition, the National Assembly will not have a final vote, Philippe said. He said the government stood ready to push the reforms through by direct decree if necessary.

 Rural voters, though, will take some heart from Philippe's pledge not to close down little-used branch lines, a proposal that was contained in a government-commissioned report released earlier this month.

 

 

 

 (Reporting By Brian Love; editing by Richard Lough)</s>PARIS (AP) - French Prime minister Edouard Philippe has unveiled a plan aimed at making France's national railway company more efficient ahead of opening the service to competition.

Philippe insisted Monday that SNCF will remain state-owned and ensure "missions of public service" but that recently hired SNCF employees will not benefit from the company's advantageous special status anymore as regular labor rules will apply instead.

The government has decided to use a special procedure to pass the measure by summer and avoid a lengthy debate in parliament.

Three of SNCF's main unions have called a nationwide strike March 22 to protest against the plan.

Unlike several EU member states, France has not opened local and national passenger trains to competition. That's a change that will be required in coming years under European rules.

FILE - This Thursday, June 2, 2016 file photo taken with a long shutter and using the zoom during exposure shows a train of the SNCF, France's national railway company, standing on the track during a strike at the Gare du Nord railway station, in Paris, France. French Prime minister Edouard Philippe announced Monday a plan aimed at making France's national railway company more efficient ahead of opening the service to competition. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)</s>PARIS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - French rail workers will no longer enjoy special employment perks, with new hires to fall under France's national labour law when the government pushes through reform of the state-run SNCF train company by decree, the prime minister said on Monday.

The government will start a process of sweeping reforms with a debate in parliament in mid-March but, in the event of wide opposition, the assembly will not have a final vote, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said.

The prime minister's comments will anger labour unions who have already threatened protests in March over the planned reforms. (Reporting By Brian Love; editing by Richard Lough)</s>PARIS — French Prime minister Edouard Philippe has unveiled a plan aimed at making France’s national railway company more efficient ahead of opening the service to competition.

Philippe insisted Monday that SNCF will remain state-owned and ensure “missions of public service” but that recently hired SNCF employees will not benefit from the company’s advantageous special status anymore as regular labour rules will apply instead.

The government has decided to use a special procedure to pass the measure by summer and avoid a lengthy debate in parliament.

Three of SNCF’s main unions have called a nationwide strike March 22 to protest against the plan.

Unlike several EU member states, France has not opened local and national passenger trains to competition. That’s a change that will be required in coming years under European rules.</s>(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File). FILE - This Thursday, June 2, 2016 file photo taken with a long shutter and using the zoom during exposure shows a train of the SNCF, France's national railway company, standing on the track during a strike at the Gar...

(AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File). FILE - In this Wednesday, June 1, 2016 file picture French rail workers burn a flare after installing rails during a demonstration in front of the French employers' union MEDEF's branch in Lyon, central France. French...

(AP Photo/Claude Paris, File). FILE - In this Monday June 16, 2014 file picture passengers walk along a platform to take a train at the Gare St-Charles station in Marseille, southern France. French Prime minister Edouard Philippe announced Monday a pla...

PARIS (AP) - French Prime minister Edouard Philippe has unveiled a plan aimed at making France's national railway company more efficient ahead of opening the service to competition.

Philippe insisted Monday that SNCF will remain state-owned and ensure "missions of public service" but that recently hired SNCF employees will not benefit from the company's advantageous special status anymore as regular labor rules will apply instead.

The government has decided to use a special procedure to pass the measure by summer and avoid a lengthy debate in parliament.

Three of SNCF's main unions have called a nationwide strike March 22 to protest against the plan.

Unlike several EU member states, France has not opened local and national passenger trains to competition. That's a change that will be required in coming years under European rules.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>The Union Railway Ministry seems to have learned a lot from the recent Bollywood release PadMan. Ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, Indian Railways has started installing sanitary napkin dispensers and incinerators at around 200 major railway stations across the country.

The drive reportedly includes the installation of the machines at major bus and airport terminals as well.

Railway board Chairman Ashwan Lohani told PTI: "Efforts are being made to cover about 200 major and way-side Railway stations and Railway premises by March 8, 2018, International Women's Day for the benefit of women employees and women of financially weaker sections of the society."

"Dastak," a production unit started by the Railway Women's Welfare Central Organization (RWWCO) in January 2018, has taken up the task of producing eco-friendly sanitary pads at affordable prices at its Sarojini Nagar Railway Colony center in New Delhi, the railway ministry was quoted as saying by PTI.

The setup at Dastak includes a pad-making machine that utilizes wood pulp, gel sheet, back sheet, net, non-woven sheet and silicone paper — which are all biodegradable — to make the feminine hygiene products. The napkins are packed and sterilized using ultraviolet rays.

As of now, the Delhi unit employs six persons who work to produce 400 napkins a day. The self-help group venture Dastak will reportedly be scaled up for a pan India presence, reports said.

Also, considering the speed and quantity in the production of sanitary pads, a single pack having six pads will initially be priced Rs 22 per packet. There are speculations that the prices will fall as and when the rate of production increases.

Union minister Piyush Goyal also visited Dastak and hailed the idea of introducing dispensers and incinerators. He said the national transporter should be a leader in such social initiatives.

Railways had initiated the process last month when it installed sanitary pad dispensers and incinerators at New Delhi and Bhopal railway stations and at railway offices across India, including one at Baroda House — the Headquarter of Northern Railway.

This step comes after many women activists spoke against the pricing of sanitary napkins in the new budget, and demanded that no Goods and Services Tax (GST) be imposed on them.

A video had surfaced social media in January where an activist was seen addressing female students over the installation of sanitary napkin dispensers in all major bus stations, railway stations and airports.</s>The head of the hardline neo-communist union most strongly represented in the French railway company SNCF threatened a month-long strike on Monday night, just hours after prime minister Édouard Philippe launched the reform of the company.

“It will probably take a month-long strike to make the government fold,” Laurent Brun, secretary general of the CGT-Cheminots, tweeted. “We will meet the challenge. We’re certainly heading into one of the most important social movements in the history of the SNCF.”

A similar reform plan in 1995, by then prime minister Alain Juppé, sent two million people into the streets and paralysed the country.

France has changed since, officials in president Emmanuel Macron’s administration argue. Resolve among railway workers has weakened, and the public are weary of delayed and cancelled trains.

Mr Macron used the same method of consultation, which was followed by a rapid enactment of decrees, to reform the labour code last year. To widespread surprise, it met only minor protests.

On February 23rd, four unions representing the SNCF’s 160,000 workers warned the government “it will carry full responsibility for a major conflict” if it reforms by decree.

Mr Philippe on Monday confirmed he will not hesitate to issue decrees. Further details on reforms will be presented just two weeks from now, in draft legislation and a separate report by the SNCF to the minister for transport. This administrative ambush will precede by one week a mass protest planned by the unions.

The same unions are to meet on Tuesday night to decide whether to go on strike.

The prime minister warned against “twisting the railway reform into an ideological confrontation”. But it is that already. The conservative daily Le Figaro denounced the SNCF as a “self-preserving bastion that refuses that one touch a single hair of this sacred cow”.

Mr Philippe emphasised that “it is the president of the Republic who set the course”. The left-leaning newspapers Le Monde and Libération compared the speed and zeal of Mr Macron’s reforms to that of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The reforms announced by Mr Philippe are based on a report by Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the former chief executive of Air France, which was published on February 15th.

The Spinetta report was “severe, but unfortunately correct”, Mr Philippe said. “The situation is alarming, not to say untenable. The French . . . pay more and more for a public service that functions less and less well.”

For 40 years, France invested heavily in high-speed TGV lines, to the detriment of the ordinary train network. French infrastructure is twice as old as that in Germany, forcing French trains to reduce their speed by 20 per cent, for safety.

The SNCF receives €14 billion in annual subsidies, more than the police and gendarmerie combined, Mr Philippe said. “It costs 30 per cent more to operate a train in France than in another country.”

The railway’s €50 billion debt “threatens to swallow up the entire system”, Mr Philippe continued. “The status quo is not an option, because the status quo threatens public service.”

But the government will not follow the recommendation of the Spinetta report to close local lines. “One doesn’t decide to close 9,000km of lines from Paris, according to administrative and accounting criteria,” Mr Philippe explained.

Along with reform by decree, the most hotly contested measure is the end of special status for railway workers. The 140,000 workers who have life-long contracts with the company will not be affected. “But the world is changing. The SNCF must change too,” Mr Philippe said.

In the face of competition, the SNCF could not grant life-long guarantees to new recruits. “They will benefit from the same working conditions as all French people under the labour code,” Mr Philippe said.

Mr Philippe did not spell out that the competition he alluded to is the result of EU regulations which require France to open its railway sector to competition before December 25th. “Wherever our neighbours have opened up to competition, it has increased usage and improved service,” he said. “Competition means new actors, new ideas, new means.”

Mr Philippe said the three wings of the SNCF will be brought together under centralised oversight. “Between the broken-up British model and the continental model of a single, integrated group, as exists in Germany, my preference goes towards the latter.”
French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announces plans to overhaul the state-owned railway firm SNCF. The details of the railway reform will be released in March.