At the heart of a collective writing session of summary proceedings organized by the “Vacular collective action” of the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, we plunge into the unequal fight that the temporary teachers lead to obtain respect for their rights and a change of status. Doctoral student, external professionals, retired, teachers of high school, the profiles may have varied, their status finally takes the same twisted contours. Neither civil servant, nor contractual agent, nor employee falling under the public service, the temporary workers make up, at the national level, an ill -defined mass of at least 170,000 external speakers remunerated with the task.
The use of these temporary workers, supposed to respond occasionally to special needs, was generally generalized, until they become a constant practice over time. Even when their actual work no longer corresponds to their name at all. Not counted, little recognized, very badly paid, they and they cut vital work for French universities, 91% of which resort to their services. They represent two-thirds of the superior teaching staff.
In the premises of the CGT of the life of Paris, a dozen temporary workers from Paris 1 are busy with application in an atmosphere of benevolent camaraderie. Affiliated to the CGT FERC SUP, which brings together the unions of higher education and research personnel, the local antenna encourages them to assert their rights through legal action. On the program of the day: collective writing of mail for formal notice and summary proceedings. Despite its prestigious aura, the Parisian University is no exception to widespread practices in the rest of the country: very late payments, wages, non -reimbursed transport costs, “forget” of certain hours provided during the semester. With, as a bonus, the deaf ear of a direction which is careful not to accept the dialogue with the concerned.
The observation is clear: everywhere in France, universities do not respect the Research Programming Law (LPR), voted by the National Assembly in 2020. The monthly payment of remuneration, fixed by the text in force since September 2022, is only a pious wish ever implemented. When you learn that even the Paris-Saclay University, then chaired by the future Minister of Higher Education Sylvie Retailleau (2022-2024), did not deem it appropriate to comply with the law, imagine the application of the latter on a national level is a gentle utopia.
“We do not know in advance how many hours of lessons will be given, so payment is made at the end of the semester, once everything is recognized,” explains Adèle. “This is the wonderful system of the ‘zero hour’ contract ‘: we work first, we count after.”
To this practice are added several disadvantages: no minimum base of working hours is provided, and the hours of preparation and correction are not counted. “It is said that an hour of vacation costs the establishment 50 euros, against an average of 300 euros for a full teacher,” says Jean. The calculation is quickly done … Add to that a total absence of social protection and you will get the sad panorama of their working conditions.
So the temporary workers would be doomed to suffer? In the past, the protest methods varied, explains Nicolas: “We have retention of notes in 2016 and 2019, activated political relays, carried out punctual actions which tended to evaporate once the campaign is over.” He continues: “The temporary workers being sometimes isolated or providing only a few hours scattered in the semester, it was often difficult to mobilize them to assert their rights. In addition, the lack of logistical and financial means inevitably limited our room for maneuver. ” With the CGT, there is “a room, a more visible and accessible structure, and a little money for lawyers, if necessary”, adds Alexia, not without a touch of irony.
But since the entry into force of the law, the collective now opts for a more direct operating mode: legal proceedings. “Our idea is quite simple: by dint of assaulting the University of Procedures, management will be well forced to rethink its structure in depth and its way of considering us,” explains Lou. It details the two -step action plan set up by the collective: “At first, a formal notice is addressed to the attention of the establishment’s management. If it does not respond, we send a summary letter, this time for the administrative court. Of course, this file is very strictly strictly strict, and well supplied: the claims must be solidly supported. ” To face procedures “which can have something arid”, solidarity is in order. Thus, Jean, is designated by his peers, not without humor, as the “specialist in administrative law”.
Relayed by the political world, evidenced by a recent platform published in The worldthe collectives request the abandonment of the status of temporary workers, which does not correspond in many cases more to their professional reality, and the transition to that of contractual. This makes it possible to benefit from certain provisions applicable to public service agents: paid holidays, training, end of contract indemnity.
In the background, a question seems obvious. If the law is inapplicable with the current status, why does the Ministry of Education are reluctant to carry out a real reform which would include this statutory change? This would have the merit of clarifying the situation, getting out of a legal impasse and stabilizing relations with the teaching staff.
Precariousness, a political choice?
According to several projections, this requalification would cost the State around 50 million euros, but it would also allow it to avoid many administrative heaviness. Difficult therefore to explain by the only budgetary factor this unanimous reluctance to adopt a system change.
In reality, the central reason is accountable: temporary workers are not counted as public jobs. Not appearing in social balance sheets, the Ministry of the Economy therefore considers, to use the strange terminology of Bercy, which they “do not consume jobs”. This artificial accounting vacuum thus makes it possible to bypass the public employment ceilings fixed by the French Parliament, while continuing to absorb the constant increase in the student population. Thanks to this system, 5.6 million hours of teaching are carried out each year by temporary workers. The equivalent of 15,000 full-time jobs, occupied by 30,000 teachers. In other words, for each course provided by a teacher in France in France, a double diffuse, invisible and unknown fell the same amount of work, apart from any radar.
Behind this prodigious budget lash tower hides a less pink reality: work overload, precariousness, and ultimately the bitterness of those who are invisible despite their essential role. While skillfully dodging the constraints to create posts, we continue to run universities at full speed. “In fact, it really gives the impression that the university is maintained alive at the expense of our health and our dignity,” says Adèle. “No one feels really respected in these conditions, and necessarily it has an impact on the quality of teaching.”
In this tense context, where research teams lack resources, where infrastructure is increasingly dilapidated, the problem necessarily feeds the debate on the future of the public university in France. The disarray has not yet been absolutely right for the temporary workers of Panthéon-Sorbonne, and their mobilizing energy will undoubtedly allow them victories on the way. But as long as the temporary workers of France are maintained in this artificial fog, their fight will remain current.
And in Switzerland?
In our latitudes, the precariousness of teachers from higher establishments remains a subject that agitates public opinion. If the situation lived in France does not find equivalent scope in Switzerland, our universities are still based on the work of charged, postdoctoralizing or doctoral students to ensure a significant part of teaching. And this, under contractual conditions which are often revealed fragile. Thus, in 2022, the proportion of the intermediary body at the University of Geneva engaged in fixed -term contracts or a substitute contract reached 48%. The multiple criticisms emanating from teaching associations · in reaction to this high percentage pushed the rectorate to the adoption of a plan to stabilize and perpetuate employment within the institution.
The case of the former lecturee at Unige Alessandro Campanelli is reminiscent of the turpitudes that French temporary workers go when it comes to being paid for hours. The Geneva post-doctorator indeed gave much more lessons of lessons than his contract initially provided for it, without his salary being adjusted accordingly. His court victory against his former employer, however, suggests a breach that his counterparts could be tempted to exploit elsewhere in Switzerland. In other establishments, situations vary, but an observation remains significant: in the highly competitive universe of higher education, the passage through precariousness is often perceived as a necessary sacrifice to hope to access a place in the sun. VR
