It won’t have dragged on. Faced with the growing controversy since the start of the week over the elimination of part of teachers’ overtime, the government decided this Wednesday to back down.
The Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, “gave instructions that from tomorrow [ce jeudi, NDLR]the academies recover the budgetary resources initially notified in order to continue the allocation of overtime in the establishments,” indicated those around him.
There was a fire in the house. The unions had all sounded the alarm. “It’s panic” in middle and high schools, confided Tuesday Bruno Bobkiewicz, head of the main union of school leaders, SNPDEN. The budgetary savings decided by Bercy were to have direct consequences on student support systems. The activities “homework done”, “fluency” (fluent reading) and “clubs” are “suspended” from May 6 due to lack of resources, the principal of a college at the Créteil academy wrote on Tuesday to parents of ‘students.
Like other heads of establishment, he had received an email from the rectorate telling him that access to the software which is used to trigger the payment of overtime and allowances for special missions was suspended.
The whole year 2024 concerned
The principle of remuneration for services rendered is not called into question, assured the rectorates. But the “homework done” system – although made a priority by Emmanuel Macron –, just like the revisions or support courses planned as part of the patent and baccalaureate, were threatened. Allowances for special missions, which are used to pay digital advisors or students with disabilities, were also in the sights.
The budget cuts covered the entire calendar year 2024. They were therefore spread over both the current third quarter and the start of the school year in September. In an email that “Les Echos” was able to consult, the Versailles academy mentioned for example “a measure to reduce overtime allocations and allowances for special missions” and “an adjustment” to come which will be “notified” to the establishments.
It’s scandalous. This envelope is used and thought regarding over the year, we do not improvise week following week!
Bruno Bobkiewicz Secretary General of SNPDEN
According to union sources, the cuts were to be made to the tune of a third of the overall volume, for savings of around 100 million euros, corresponding to several dozen hours in each middle and high school.
” It’s scandalous ! said Bruno Bobkiewicz on Tuesday evening, before the government reversed course. This envelope is used and thought regarding over the year, we do not improvise week following week! There is no dialogue. They send us an email, they tell us that they are closing the application intended for overtime payment, and they explain to us that we will see later how many hours have been taken. There is a real breakdown in trust and a questioning of our autonomy. We have never interrupted a budget by saying: ‘We don’t have any more money, forget it!’ »
“Even that, they take it from us! »
There was even talk of a strike as of this Thursday, according to Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of SNES-FSU. The main secondary school union was ironic regarding the Prime Minister who had promised to bring the school, the mother of all battles, to Matignon. “Obviously, he mainly took the budget. »
In a letter sent Tuesday evening to Nicole Belloubet, the Sgen-CFDT also warned of short-term replacements which “will be prevented” and “the organization of examinations which might be weakened”. All these alerts were therefore heard by the government.
The unions expected that one day the government would be tempted to reduce the volume of overtime to encourage teachers to switch to the teachers’ pact. But they did not imagine that we were trying to “twist their arm”, to use the expression of the SNES-FSU. Especially since overtime costs less than the pact. “Between overtime and pact, certain missions overlap, we need to regulate the budgetary counters a little,” the ministry was told on Tuesday, before backing down.
The budget cuts announced in the pact are not called into question. The ministry decided in mid-April to stop signing pacts for the current year. Here once more, inspectors and heads of establishment were informed by email overnight. Of the 900 million planned under the pact, the ministry has stopped the counters at the 700 million spent so far.
The expansion of teachers’ missions
The budget allocated to overtime, up by 6.9 million over one year for an amount of 333 million euros in 2023, was used in particular to set up refresher courses and “homework done”, notes the Court of Auditors in its budget execution report published in mid-April. As for compensation for special missions, their “continuous increase” (+18 million since 2018) is “a direct consequence of the expansion of the missions entrusted to teachers”. The establishment of the National Refoundation Council was carried out by means of compensation for special missions, underlines the Court.
