Anger is brewing among CPAM employees in Loire-Atlantique and Vendée. Some of them went on indefinite strike starting Monday. Around thirty of them also demonstrated this Monday in front of the Beaulieu site in Nantes and there were around 60 in front of the Saint-Nazaire site. They are demanding a salary increase and protesting against the implementation of a new IT tool in the department, “ARPEGE”, responsible for compensating work stoppages. However, this system has been tested for more than a month in Loire-Atlantique and Vendée works poorly and has serious consequences. Results, thousands of people no longer perceive at all or a very small part of their daily allowance.
“When we have a rent of 600 euros, what do we do?”
Moreover, right next to the rally in Nantes this Monday, some people were queuing at the CPAM precisely about compensation problems. Among them, Stéphanie, on leave since April. At 56 years old, this resident of Pornic has suffered from cervical cancer since her arrest. She receives 1,100 euros per month, half her salary, but here is the compensation she receives because of the new system. is very weak. The mother is at the end of her rope. “I was paid 600 euros in compensation every 14 days so do the math. They paid me a deposit, three weeks ago, of 500 euros… but when you have a rent of 600 what do you do?” Stephanie asks. “The Social Security is very nice, they don't pay but we are already precarious when we are off work so it's already complicated like that, plus the illness to manage.”
According to Stéphanie, her situation is “dramatic”: “We have agios at the bank, how are we going to pay the rent and I no longer have a cell phone – unable to pay the bill. We take from the reserves but at some point we are not magic wizards. The money doesn't arrive, it doesn't arrive and it's the only source of income that I have so I called back to my work. I'm going to return to work and stop my treatment, we don't know. The doctor doesn't agree but I wonder.”
An insured person came to a CPAM site and threatened to commit suicide.
Among the CPAM employees on strike, there is Lucas. He is a reception agent on one of the CPAM sites in Nantes. For more than a month, he has seen distressed beneficiaries like Stéphanie arrive who are affected by problems with the famous computer system. He returns to their distress and is often distraught. “There were school holidays and I had several who came to tell me that they couldn't take their children back, that they couldn't pay for food for their children because the rents had passed and they couldn't. 'couldn't pay their rent. He also explains having seen a “insured who was in great distress because she had been off work for more than a year and she was not paid and threatened to commit suicide, she said she was going to screw herself up and so it's quite complicated.. “So we completely understand people's distress and we try to find the best solution but everything is not in our hands.”
“Coming home in the evening and having the impression of not having been useful is complicated”
Lucas adds: “We try to make urgent requests for deposits and we hope that they will be paid as quickly as possible. When we arrive at the front we tell ourselves that we will come across people to whom we will not be able to answer correctly or we will not have a real solution and therefore it is complicated. For me, it's mostly coming home in the evening and having the impression that I haven't been useful enough today because I don't have a real solution to offer to my policyholders, whereas we just want we either regularize and the software is finally implemented correctly or we return to the old method so that we can pay the insured correctly and that it is not deposits that are put in place “.
The strike continues this Tuesday. According to the CGT, employees will gather at 9 a.m. at the Cité des Congrès in Nantes. According to her, the director of the CNAM must be there for the national day of Health Insurance delegates. The unions requested an interview.
