17.06.2013 - CESP

Same missions / same constraints = same rights!

Collective complaint n° 101/12013 European Council of Police Unions (CESP) vs. France

The CESP introduced a collective complaint alleging France doesn’t respect articles n° 5 and 6 of the European Social Charter (Revised).
The CESP argues that it appears, from the analysis of the objectives elements coming from the Ministry of the Interior, French National Gendarmerie is - quasi exclusively - committed to Police missions, though military activities of this civil servant body are more than marginal, regarding credits as well as staff.
In this way: Since the n° 2009-971 law of August 03, the National Gendarmerie comes under the budgetary and operational authority of the Ministry of the Interior ; The part of the National Gendarmerie missions devoted to Police missions represents 73.9% of global budget and employs 83.01% of National Gendarmerie staff. Military missions only concern 2.46% of the global budget funds and only 2.24% of the National Gendarmerie global staff as well.

Under these conditions, the CESP demands / claims that the National Gendarmerie civil servants benefit from rights guaranteed by European Social Charter, their missions being identical to those performed by Police Forces, whose civil servants benefit, under certain reserves, from rights guaranteed by the European Social Charter (Article 5 – The right to organise; Article 6 – The right to bargain collectively).

This complaint has been registered by the European Committee of Social Rights on June, 10-2013 under n° 101/2013 [200 KB] .