From 7:30 a.m., Thursday morning, around thirty employees gathered in front of the APEI Moselle headquarters to make their demands heard. Among them, specialized educators, care assistants, medico-psychological caregivers, psychologists and workshop instructors. These social workers, who have been supporting adults with disabilities for years in more than twenty medico-social structures in Moselle, no longer hide their exasperation: anger is brewing in the face of a situation that has become untenable.
Behind the bonuses, a much deeper malaise at APEI Moselle
At the origin of the anger: the refusal to pay the value sharing bonus. Unlike in past years, management is moving forward in force. Employees are outraged by such a refusal given the funds available to the non-profit association. Indeed, at the recent request of the unions, an economic assessment within the APEI Moselle revealed the existence of a significant budget surplus, a real “war chest”. Once all the budgets planned for 2023 have been completed, there remain 14 million euros in the association’s coffers, well beyond the 1.7 million needed to finance the “Ségur pour Tous” measure, which management uses to motivate his decision.
If the refusal of the PPV served as a catalyst, it reveals a much deeper malaise. For the strikers, the stakes go far beyond the bonus: “ The refusal to pay this bonus was a trigger, but it is not our main demand. What we want is a real improvement in our working conditions », explained Aline Leroux, the union representative of the CGT APEI Moselle.
Disguised layoffs at APEI Moselle: an economy strategy at all costs
As part of the national mobilization against layoffs, APEI Moselle employees denounced a scandalous social breakdown: the gradual disappearance of positions in their sector, not through waves of massive layoffs as in the industrial sectors. , but through “silent layoffs”.
Rather than resorting to waves of visible and directly confrontable layoffs, management chooses not to fill vacant positions, thus creating an indirect elimination of jobs.
By voluntarily leaving these positions vacant, management makes significant savings on salaries and related costs. A strategy with disastrous consequences in a sector already understaffed.
The CGT union representative returns to these practices: “ In the medical-social sector, we are not talking about layoffs, but that does not mean that jobs are not disappearing. Today, many vacant positions are no longer filled voluntarily by management. It’s a savings strategy ».
This approach, although discreet, is no better than the social destruction of the private sector. Current employees are experiencing an increasing workload in deteriorating conditions, while residents see their support compromised by understaffed teams. “ Ultimately, these are lost jobs, and this money, saved on our working conditions, feeds the association’s war chest. ».
Added to this are shameful budgetary choices. In 2023, the APEI would have devoted more than 420,000 euros to the management of layoffs and conventional terminations, a sum equivalent to the budget necessary to finance the PPV or salary increases.
Another striker alerted us to the transformation of the medico-social sector, particularly into ESAT: “ Initially I didn’t work at all in the social sector before, I worked in the private sector, in the metallurgy but I underwent 2 social plans, it was terrible for me but I found a position at APEI Moselle 15 years ago years ago […] but for several years the sector has become more and more similar to the private sector. We hear only about clients, deadlines, productivity, we do less and less social and we just have to make the figure of the figure of the figure ».
But this loss of employment is not disconnected from the national situation, there are more than 90,000 jobs which are now threatened. While thousands of strikers across France, from Grenoble librarians to Michelin Cholet workers, are mobilizing against the destruction of jobs, APEI Moselle employees must raise their heads.
In a context of deep medico-social crisis, it becomes necessary to adopt a combat plan, breaking with social dialogue, and impose our demands through strikes. While the Bayrou government is preparing to promulgate a budget just as austere as that of Michel Barnier, the urgency is to rethink the organization of medico-social workers in alliance with users: for a model of care free from logic of profit and private interests!
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