The conflict that has pitted the 75,000 non-doctor employees of the 38 hospitals of the Paris Public Assistance (AP-HP) against the management for several weeks could be summed up in a few figures. It concerns the reorganization of working time and 35 hours.
A headache for Martin Hirsch who, to preserve 4,000 jobs in the next 5 years, offers the unions a compromise. “A reduction of a few minutes in the duration of the working day in exchange for the abandonment of five RTT in the year”, summarizes François Béguin in the newspaper Le Monde.
The director of the AP-HP thus wants to limit the breakage of the building where the unions are demanding a renovation: “Without additional means, there is no point in discussing anything, chants the USAP-CGT to the AP- HP, the majority union, highlighting hardship, working time and family life.
Reduction of the deficit on one side, always more means on the other, it is therefore a dialogue of the deaf that has been established. And it was in the street that the 5,000 to 8,000 strikers made themselves heard on May 21. They intend to do it again this Thursday in the streets of Paris.
Closely observed by the hospital world, this showdown is, in many ways, emblematic. Its outcome will speak volumes about the government’s desire to initiate structural reform in hospitals.
For the moment, we count the points. “It is a well-measured and cautious support that the Minister of Health has so far given him”, observes the journalist from Le Monde, referring to Martin Hirsch. On May 19, Marisol Touraine recalled that she would ensure “respect for the rights of employees as well as the conditions for social dialogue”.
The courageous director of the AP-HP, supported by the commissions of doctors, would he already be let go by the executive? Impossible to lead such a battle without having the imprimatur of the Elysée and Matignon, nuance a representative of the leaders of the hospital in the daily newspaper.
Winner or loser, the bets diverge, but the observation is obvious to all: a status quo would plunge the AP-HP and, by extension, other hospital structures, into chaos.
