for what causes can an agent be fired? | EUROtoday

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VSHow to fireside a civil servant? This query, which is a supply of stress in France, will most likely occupy the consultations with the social companions which started on Tuesday April 9 across the civil service reform venture.

However, on Tuesday, in an interview with Parisian, the Minister of the Civil Service Stanislas Guerini didn’t mince his phrases: “I want the taboo of dismissal in the public service to be lifted. »

As revealed The Parisian In the framework document for discussions between public service unions and employers, the government provides time for discussion on this sensitive issue. “Are employers and managers sufficiently equipped to take into account professional inadequacy in the course of their career, directly assessed on the basis of professional evaluation? What is the possibility of a graduated response? »

Basically, the executive is attacking the myth of lifelong employment in the public service. But, under the current legislative framework, under what conditions can a public servant be dismissed? Spotlight with Clément Chauvet, professor of public law at the University of Angers (Maine-et-Loire).

What are the main reasons?

If the rights of private sector employees are governed by the Labor Code, the General Civil Service Code (CGFP) brings together all the rights and duties of public sector workers. “If we simply stick to the legislative framework, a civil servant, like a private sector employee, can be dismissed for disciplinary misconduct, for professional inadequacy, for physical unfitness for his job, among others,” lists Clément Chauvet.

As supplied for in article L553-1 of the CGFP, a civil servant may be dismissed within the occasion of abandonment of a place or if he refuses greater than three positions with a view to reinstatement on the finish of a interval generally known as “availability”. “. “The main difference, and not the least, between a civil servant and a private sector employee is that there is no economic dismissal in the current texts,” explains the lawyer.

According to figures from the General Directorate of Administration and Civil Service (DGAFP), in 2022, 222 agents – 192 men and 30 women – of the state civil service were dismissed for disciplinary reasons. “Dismissal for disciplinary reasons is not defined by the texts. This is behavior which voluntarily deviates from what is expected of a civil servant,” defines Clément Chauvet.

READ ALSO For a “big bang” in civil servant remunerationAs we can read on the ministry's website, “there’s a disciplinary offense every time the habits of an agent hinders the correct functioning of the service or undermines the general public's popularity for the service.” A disciplinary offense can be committed outside the professional context, with sanctions provided for in the event of behavior incompatible with the exercise of one's functions or behavior that undermines the dignity of the public service. Disciplinary misconduct may also be subject to criminal prosecution, as in the case of sexual offenses.

There are also some differences according to public functions. Territorial civil servants can, for example, be dismissed in the event of refusal to modify the working hours of a non-full-time job or in the event of permanent physical incapacity of a non-full-time civil servant. Hospital civil service agents can also be dismissed for this last reason.

What is “professional inadequacy”?

This is what the government wants to focus on. “Professional inadequacy will concern a tenured civil servant who is not able to fulfill his duties when he should be capable of doing so given his grade. It's not bad will, it's not an agent refusing to work. He doesn't know how to do it. This is not a fault falling under disciplinary law,” explains Clément Chauvet. In 2023, thirteen state civil service agents were dismissed for professional inadequacy, out of 2.5 million agents.

According to THEParisianthe government would like to “provide a more solid legal basis for distinguishing agents, recognizing commitment or mentioning professional inadequacy, and establishing a scale of sanctions ranging from a call to order to dismissal”.

On France Inter, Wednesday April 10, the minister maintained that the status of civil servants “by no means defined that we couldn’t dismiss somebody who doesn’t do their job properly”, but the framework for dismissals for professional insufficiency “is very poorly defined and above all extremely poorly applied”. To date, disciplinary procedures for this reason are based on case law and not on a legal definition.

“Professional inadequacy is actually very little used in reality. Furthermore, for sociological reasons, it is quite complicated for a hierarchical superior to dismiss an agent for professional inadequacy. So, often, we will try to find arrangements, to transfer him to a position where his deficiencies will be less annoying, for example,” explains the professor of public law.

What is “frame clearance”?

The minister's statements on the “taboo of dismissal in the public service” provoked the ire of the unions and the opposition. On Receiving the unions, not raising this subject, is this the right way to consult? »

On France Inter, the minister made a point of recalling that no “economic redundancy” project was in his plans. “When we eliminate an administrative service, we entrust public officials with another mission. So to speak, there are no economic redundancies in the public service, and I do not want to change that. I think it is statutorily something very important, which distinguishes public from private,” he explained.

As Clément Chauvet factors out, the regulation truly gives for the potential for a “release of executives” from the State civil service, which permits both the reclassification of civil servants, or compensation within the occasion of elimination from workplace. job. “An extremely rare tool with highly explosive handling these days given the social context,” underlines the lawyer. Thus, because the CFDT explains, believing that the employment of civil servants is assured for all times is a “false and commonly widespread principle”.


https://www.lepoint.fr/economie/tabou-du-licenciement-des-fonctionnaires-pour-quelles-raisons-un-agent-peut-il-etre-remercie-10-04-2024-2557380_28.php