The SNCF is proposing to pay 95 euros gross per day to railway workers mobilised during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, up to a maximum of 1,900 euros

SNCF management’s proposed agreement to pay a specific bonus to railway workers mobilised during the Olympic and Paralympic Games was approved by Sud-Rail on Tuesday 4 June, while it was rejected by CGT-Cheminots, the unions said. The proposal provides for the payment of a bonus of 95 euros gross per day to railway workers working during the Games, with a maximum ceiling of 1,900 euros.

With the support of Sud-Rail, CFDT-Cheminots and Unsa-Ferroviaire, who had already expressed their intention to sign, a sufficient union majority has been reached to validate the agreement, which is deemed ‘fair, with acceptable social and financial measures’ by Sud-Rail.

This bonus will benefit around 50,000 railway workers mobilised at the test sites, whether in the Ile-de-France region, Châteauroux, Saint-Etienne or Marseille, whatever their function (station agents, maintenance, drivers, etc.). Sud-Rail is pleased that ‘all professions are being treated equally, unlike at the RATP, for example’. However, the CGT-Cheminots, the largest union but not the majority union within the state-owned company, largely disapproved of the agreement, according to its general secretary, Thierry Nier.

This majority agreement comes as a relief to SNCF management and its Chairman Jean-Pierre Farandou, less than two months before the Olympic Games. On 21 May, the day before a decisive meeting on these bonuses, a near-general strike in the Ile-de-France region paralysed the region’s RER and suburban trains.