Archive:Public employment - France
This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived.
- Source: Ministry of the Spanish presidency 2010, publication "Public employment in the European Union Member States" .
This article is part of a set of background articles and introduces public employment in France.
Regional and administrative organisation
The French Republic was constituted as a semi-presidential, social and democratic state of law, governed by its universal motto: Freedom, Equality and Fraternity.
System of government
The Executive Power is shared between the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister.
The President of the Republic is elected by popular vote for a period of 5 years. The Constitution gave the President important powers, such as arbitration between the high level institutions, defence of the integrity of the territory, appointment of some senior positions and enactment of laws.
The Prime Minister is appointed by the President (who can dismiss him). If he does not need to be sworn in by the National Assembly, the Prime Minister is accountable to the Assembly. The Prime Minister also has constitutional powers such as mediation in the budgetary process and management of the administrative system responsible for implementing national public policies.
Regional organisation
Local administration is divided into three levels: Communes, Departments and Regions.
In the framework of a decentralization process launched in 1981, region and department as state administrative districts were differentiated from their local authority status, elected by popular vote. This was all accompanied by a transfer of powers.
The Communes, led by a Mayor, have basic service and democratic representation functions. Services of the prefecture and local state services were transferred to the Departments: health and social services, infrastructures, agriculture, etc. The Regions powers consist mainly on economic planning and education.
Public administration
The French Republic is a parliamentary democracy, whose central government consists of various Ministries, which in turn have regional Departments and Directorates. The Regions and the Departments have jurisdiction over questions concerning training, transport and public works, etc.
Public Employment Structure
France has three branches of the civil service (central government, local government and hospital). Each branch is governed by a specific set of provisions, which are applied nationwide. The General Regulations for all three branches were unified by the Law of 13 July 1983 (Title I – General Regulations), which however, defined and maintained the specificities of each branch.
Members of the judiciary and the armed forces are governed by special regulations.
Statistics: The French civil service employs 5.3 million people (21.1% of the active population) and is organised into 3 Levels: State Civil Service, with 2.484 million employees (47% of the total) distributed into Ministries (2.,193 m.) and Public Administrative Establishments (0.292 m); Territorial Civil Service, (1.748 m. which is equivalent to 33% of the total) and the Hospital Civil Service, (over 1 m., representing 20% of the total), of which 94% work in hospitals and 6% in homes and other offices.
By Services:
- At a Central Level, the average age of employees is 43.8 years old; women represent 50.1% of employees and 16,1% of senior positions.
- At a Territorial Level: Age: 44.4 years old; Women: 61% and 18% of senior positions;
- At a Hospital Level: Age: 42.9 years old; Women: 76.4% and 37,9% of senior positions.
For the three branch of the civil service, disabled represent 4,5% of the employees.
Ratio of civil servants/inhabitants: 70.9/1,000 (including overseas). In the Central Service, 17.4% of women work part-time, compared with 2,9% of men.
Retirement: The average retirement age in 2008 was 59 years old for the central government civil servants. Between 2006 and 2007, 4.5% of civil servants enjoyedgeographic mobility, whilst 3.3% had professional mobility with a change in group. 6,5% changed administrative organization and 0,3% had structural mobility with organization transfer.
The Civil Service is divided into 3 Categories according to the position:
- Category A (directors, 29.7%),
- Category B (intermediate professionals, 24.3%) and
- Category C (employees and operators, 46%).
The Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts, Civil Service and State Reform is responsible for the civil service, human resource management and the salary policy.
Rights, obligations, principles and values
The main rights of civil servants are: the right to strike, join a union, ongoing training, participation, remuneration, protection and freedom of opinion (whether political, trade-union-related, philosophical or religious). Their main obligations are: professional confidentiality, professional discretion and informing the public, performing the tasks entrusted to them, following orders from superiors, etc.
Career-based system and training
Although public employees can be recruited on a contractual basis (16%), they are normally recruited via selection processes. Training is provided at on-going training centres and others that specialise in international cooperation: National School of Administration (ENA), Regional Administration Institutes that offer training for standard government posts and the Centre for European Studies (Strasbourg). There are also ministerial centres that provide training for specific posts.
The civil servant assessment procedure is set out in Decree 682, on the classification and promotion of civil servants in administrative scales. Assessment is carried out by the direct hierarchical superior and is based on performance as well as professional development prospects.
The civil servant is informed of the result of the assessment. It is carried out in each Ministry, in accordance with the functions and corps to be managed, whereby it may adopt its own classification system in agreement with trade unions. Classification is the responsibility of the Head of Service. The Decree provides a regulation defining the procedure to follow, classifications, notes, etc. for the specific characteristics of each Ministry.
The assessment may be annual or twice yearly and is based on the rules established for each administration. It may be reviewed on the civil servant’s request, who is also entitled to appeal to the administrative jurisdiction.
The importance of seniority in career development has been reduced in favour of merit. The result of the assessment serves for career advancement by means of a change in level or grade. Each grade is divided into levels and it is possible to go up a level in the same grade. There are 3 types of grade advancement: By authority appointment, by examination, by competition.
Remuneration
Remuneration is based on the employee’s grade and the rank of the position occupied, or in other words, for belonging to a corps and the rank within each corps. The rank is linked to a base remuneration according to the civil servant’s position on a common scale. In addition to grade, rank and position, remuneration consists of compensation for residence, a family supplement and legal compensation. Therefore, the main remuneration is determined by a civil servant’s grade within his/her corps and a rank associated to a gross index or classification index, to which a salary index that varies between 280 and 821 is assigned. Annual salary is calculated by multiplying this salary index by a percentage.
A harmonised, streamlined and more individualised bonus system, known as the “Function and Performance Bonus” is currently being introduced, in which remuneration has a functional part that takes account of the civil servant’s responsibilities, and another that covers a person’s individual performance, which is evaluated in individual interviews.
Social dialogue and system of representation
In theory, trade unions do not have the legal authority to initiate collective bargaining except for salary increases. In reality, the practice of bargaining has grown and deepened over the past ten years. During negotiations, the government is represented by the Ministry for the Civil Service (central government civil service), the Ministry for Health (hospital civil service) and the Ministry for Local Authorities (local government civil service). Employee representatives come from the eight major trade unions. Subjects discussed include working conditions, health, remuneration, etc. Although the agreements reached are not binding, the political weight that they represent is definite. The Government may act unilaterally in the case of failure to reach agreement.
Within the framework of social dialogue reform, in 2008, the six most representative trade unions:
- French Democratic Confederation of Labour,
- French Confederation of Christian Workers,
- Union of Executives,
- General Confederation of Labour,
- General Confederation of Labour - Force Ouvrière,
- National Union of Autonomous Unions
signed the “Bercy Agreements” in order to strengthen the role of bargaining and social dialogue between civil service branches and between ministries, underscore the legitimacy of technical committees and advisory bodies, and reinforce the rights and means for trade union action.
Collective bargaining is centralised on a national level; and includes salary increases within the limits set out in the Budget by the Ministry for Finance. It is characterised by the obligation to consultation prior to decision-making. According to the recent “Bercy Agreement”, a pact between trade unions and employers is considered to be valid if 2 trade unions, with a minimum of 20% of the votes of the entire union representation, sign it and it is not rejected by any organization that represents a majority of the votes.
Senior civil servants
In France, they are not called Senior Civil Servants but rather High Level Civil Servants. They enjoy special conditions that are different to the rest of the civil servants, but they do not have a legally defined status. However, high level positions are exceptional and have a special social status, and in particular, they enjoy special conditions in relation to their recruitment and entry, assignation of posts and benefits. The French employment system is career-based and seeks a coherent public service.
Civil service recruitment remains essentially centralised. Civil servants are mainly recruited at the beginning of their careers, through highly competitive examinations and training, through special institutes. The most important schools (grandes écoles) are: National Administration School (ENA) and the Polytechnic School (EP). Entrants to grandes écoles immediately become salaried civil servants and the top 20% (ENA) and top 25% (EP) are appointed to the most prestigious grands corps.
ENA is the principal means for accessing the high-level civil service functions. However, there is also the possibility of becoming a Civil Administrator through specific recruitment systems opened to all civil servants throughout their career (known as Tour extérieur). There are also specific examinations for technical corps (Polytechnic School) and specific competitions are organised by Ministries such as Foreign affairs, in order to recruit agents with specific competencies.
Entry Recruitment: ENA: At least a higher education diploma (or similar) and an examination. The proportion of posts via external examination is 50%, 40% internally and 10% from a third channel open to candidates from the private sector or those who have an elected mandate. EP: Secondary diploma, two years of preparatory classes and a competitive examination.
There are discretionary appointments by the Government (Prefects, Directors, Ambassadors, etc.) without a fixed term contract and revocable at any time, and classical management appointments with a defined duration (three years, renewable once). For discretionary appointments by the Government, a formalised procedure does not exist; for other appointments, there is a very limited procedure (call for application, nomination, validation by the Prime Minister and the Minister concerned and consultation with the General Directorate for Administration and Civil Service).
Senior Civil Servants are recruited by a more centralised process than general civil servants. Performance appraisal takes place annually. The Assessment interview is held between the Programme Manager and the Senior Civil Servant, or at the very top level. There are three core elements in the appraisal: Indicator-based objectives; operational quality of the service and the capacity of the Director and the assessment carried out by the hierarchical leaders. The appraisal defines the amount of the performance-based pay, which can be up to a maximum of 20% of the total salary.
The ENA and EP carry out training at the entry level and subsequently (senior positions receive training within six months of their appointment). Leadership training for senior civil servants consists of training in negotiation, communication skills, public governance, etc.
As for remuneration, Directors and Director-Generals have performance-related pay. Civil servants’ remuneration is based on three components: basic salary assigned to each corps. Two additional levels: At the inter-ministerial level: a fixed premium for productivity or the percentage of the base salaries of the different pay grades. At ministerial level: an efficiency premium is used, which is also defined as a percentage of the base salaries of the different pay grades.
Part-time work for SCS is allowed by Law, but in practice, like tele-working, it is not really common practice, arising only for jurisdictional functions. SCS have more free days to compensate for the flat-rate time worked, but in practice many executives are unable to take their days off. For members of the grands corps there is mobility between ministries and various positions within the administrative system. By means of temporary assignments, they can be loaned to other ministries. They are permitted to take leaves of absence to hold political office or work in the private sector while maintaining their benefits such as rate of pay and level of seniority upon their return.
Statistics: In France there are over 5 000 senior civil servants in the Central Administration (around 16% of which are female). Since 2005, career initiatives and the elimination of the 50 years old age limit makes it easier to recruit senior executives via the “tour extérieur”. This procedure, which is open to Category A civil servants with at least eight years of service, is specifically designed to take account of professional experience. Mobility obstacles between the three branches of the civil service have also been removed so that local government and hospital civil servants seconded into the civil administrators’ corps may move there permanently after 2 years of service.
Recent reforms and prospects
Several reform projects have been initiated, including ones dealing with individualised remuneration, mobility, evaluation, training and diversity. A number of these are part of the roadmap for the “Public Service 2012 Pact”. They are also part of the wider General Review of Public Policies, specifically in relation to human resources.
The 2008 reforms mentioned in the social dialogue and other reforms approved by the Public Policy Modernisation Council to improve the quality of public services and meet the objective of replacing only one out of two retiring civil servants between 2009 and 2011 to reduce the size of the public service have also been initiated.
Other reforms affect the modernisation of the 15 French Ministries to improve their efficiency, which have already been culminated in the Ministries of Defence, Sustainable Development and the Interior. A series of inter-departmental measures include multi-year budgets, modernisation of the State’s territorial organisation, streamlining internal procedures, modernising human resource management, modernising the State’s support functions (payroll, State purchases), and a “zero red tape” policy.