SNCF announces agreement on wages after the signing of two unions

The agreement on average salary increases of 2.2% at SNCF in 2025 was validated after the signature of two unions, the management of the railway company announced on the evening of Friday, November 29. It had proposed such an increase on November 20, but had conditioned the application of certain measures on the signing of the agreement by at least two of the four representative organizations.

These increases include seniority-related advancements and individual increases of 1.7%, while the overall salary increase will be 0.5%. The working bonus for railway workers will also be increased by 15 euros per month. The SNCF had also announced that it would maintain its commitment not to have salaries below the minimum wage, increased by 10%, provided that two of the organizations sign the agreement. Otherwise, the only commitment maintained would be that on low wages, the 0.5% increase disappearing. The unions had until Friday to respond.

However, the UNSA-Ferroviaire (second union in the group) and the CFDT-Cheminots (fourth) have initialed the agreement, management explained in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse. The UNSA-Ferroviaire (22.1% of the votes in the last professional elections) and the CFDT-Cheminots, rather reformist, are not in the majority, the latter union having collected 15.94% of the votes in the last elections.

Protect purchasing power

This file of compulsory annual negotiations (NAO) is a priori distinct from that of the dismantling of Fret SNCF and the terms of opening to competition, two bones of contention with management which led all the company's unions to call railway workers to go on strike from December 11.

The management of the SNCF, saying “aware of employee expectations (…)will therefore apply, in their interest, all of the proposed measures, including the average increase of 2.2%. salaries, she confirmed.

The average increase will be 0.7 percentage points above inflation, forecast at 1.5% according to the Banque de France. “This is the fourth year [d’affilée] that salary increases (…) protect the purchasing power of railway workers by being higher than inflation »argued the management of the SNCF. “This NAO agreement is made possible by the good results of the SNCF group, which have been positive for six consecutive semesters. It will have no impact on taxpayers and travelers”she added.

“Not up to par”

SUD-Rail (third union in the group) judged this agreement “not up to par”. The text was also not initialed by the CGT-Cheminots, the company's first union organization. The UNSA-Ferroviaire defended its signature by estimating in a leaflet that its position allowed “to avoid a scenario of total salary freeze” and of “guarantee the implementation of all negotiated measures”.

“We ended this period of high inflation which manifested itself in a 17% increase in wages against inflation which stood at 13%” between 2022 and 2024, management recalled on November 20.

These significant salary increases, after years of freezing, have made it possible to raise the group's lowest salaries, which are now at the level of the minimum wage plus 10% minimum, or 1,580 euros net. SNCF management has decided to no longer hold these salary negotiations in November. From next year, they will take place at the end of the first quarter, just after the publication of the company's annual results.