Around thirty retired gendarmes feel discriminated against in the amount of their pension, because they are natives of Reunion Island. They are demanding their dues from the State and have filed a criminal complaint.
Johanne Chung / Jean-Régis Ramsamy
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Published on October 14, 2024 at 1:16 p.m.,
updated October 14, 2024 at 1:45 p.m.
“It’s discrimination“, says Michel-François Clémenard, retired gendarmerie warrant officer. The man does not lose his temper, just like the dozen former colleagues who accompanies him this Monday, October 14, 2023 in front of the Vérines barracks in Saint-Denis.
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Retired Reunion gendarmes say they are victims of discrimination
The reason for their anger concerns the amount of retirement pension paid to them. While the years of service spent on mission in Reunion are supposed to be enhanced for these soldiers, they have not seen any trace of it.
“Metropolitan residents or West Indians or Guyanese were entitled to a bonus providing for the doubling of the year spent in Reunion as part of the mission or stay. It was granted to all those who were not natives of Reunion“, denounces Michel-François Clémenard, retired for 17 years. 17 years since he has not received the famous increase passed on to his pension, like his other comrades.
“Of the thirty or so retirees that we are, there are still disparities. Three of us won. We worked in the same brigade for the same period with the same rank. You have some who leave with the bonus, and others who do not. And we are told that it is “difficult to compare”, adds Gilles Alidor, retired from the gendarmerie since 2010.
According to the gendarmes mobilized this Monday, who carried out their research recently, the situation had lasted since 1988, the absence of bonuses for natives of Reunion regularly confirmed by notes from the gendarmerie management, the last of which dates from November 2014.
You still had to know. Because these retired soldiers only really became aware of the situation on October 29, 2020, after the Defender of Rights Claire Hédon considered in her decision that it was indeed discrimination against the Reunion gendarmes. Thus, gendarmes from Reunion who retired after 2020 were able to obtain the bonus.
Since then, around thirty former gendarmes have demanded justice and reparation from the State. “We are demanding a review of our pensions. (…) We are asking to be paid for our catch-up, because we have been owed this money since we retired.”says Michel-François Clémenard.
We cannot reduce our assets by these amounts. We worked for this, like our other colleagues, to obtain this retirement advantage. I think it is well deserved, and it is due to every soldier who comes to Reunion.
Michel-François Clémenard, retired gendarmerie warrant officer
The injured soldiers have already filed a criminal complaint, and the public prosecutor has requested hearings. At the same time, they made a new request to the gendarmerie management in order to receive their due, following to the letter the recommendations of the Defender of Rights.
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