(Text in english below)
Rights of Contract Workers at the CNRS
No to austerity: research needs a stable workforce with civil servant status
No to arbitrary decisions by research institutes!
The General Civil Service Code stipulates that contract workers who have spent six years on fixed-term contracts within the same ministry must be hired on permanent contracts to continue working. There is a four-month qualifying period between two fixed-term contracts. This means that after four months, two successive fixed-term contracts cannot be considered as a single six-year period entitling the worker to permanent status.
These statutory rules are often mistakenly equated with the so-called “Sauvadet” law, which took effect in 2013. The Sauvadet law merely relaxed the qualifying period rules between two fixed-term contracts to qualify for a permanent contract. Four of the six yearsof fixed-term employment were sufficient to obtain a permanent contract. This law was applied only once and applied to contract employees who were on fixed-term contracts as of March 31, 2013. After that, we returned to the rules defined in the General Civil Service Code.
But then, why are renewals of fixed-term contracts being refused when there is no risk to the employer that the contract will be converted into a permanent contract?
Indeed, at the CNRS, it is common for colleagues to be denied a renewal of their fixed-term contract even though there is no risk of reaching the 6-year limit and even though the laboratories or departments where they work have the funding and the approval of the unit director. Often, notices of non-renewal are sent at the last minute, without any explanation from the employer, which puts colleagues in difficult personal situations. Finally, this represents a significant loss of expertise within the laboratories and departments.
Faced with numerous instances of confusion among work collectives and colleagues affected by the non-renewal of their fixed-term contracts, the SNTRS-CGT union contacted the CNRS Occitanie Ouest regional delegate to clarify the specific rules regarding the possibility of renewing a fixed-term contract. We were thus informed that the procedure is as follows:
• As long as an employee has less than 3 years of cumulative fixed-term contracts, regardless of any gaps in employment or the various positions held, the laboratory may decide on its own to renew the contract, with the approval of the regional delegation’s HR department.
• If the cumulative duration of fixed-term contracts exceeds three years—regardless of any gaps in employment or the various positions held—the decision on renewal would be referred to the Institute to which the laboratory is affiliated. The regional delegation’s legal department accompanies the request for renewal of a fixed-term contract with an opinion on the “risk” of reaching six years under the conditions defined by the General Civil Service Code, which could entitle the employee to a permanent contract. From there, the Institute accepts or rejects the renewal of the fixed-term contract and apparently does not need to justify its decision.
This situation, in which the Institute makes decisions affecting colleagues’ lives and the smooth progress of research projects, is rightly perceived by the community as an arbitrary rule. The fact that the Institute’s unjustified decision arrives at the last minute prevents contract colleagues from making plans for their professional and personal lives. This also creates difficulties for research projects, which lose expertise and the ability to plan the project’s timeline.
The SNTRS-CGT calls on the CNRS to clarify in writing the rules for renewing fixed-term contracts for the entire community. We demand that colleagues on fixed-term contracts and research teams be informed in advance of the possibility of contract renewal, as soon as funding is secured.
Finally, the SNTRS-CGT is calling for a plan to grant permanent civil servant status to all contract workers on fixed-term contracts, provided they perform long-term duties.