The European Committee of Social Rights has decided.
The Council of Europe body affirmed in a decision published on Wednesday that the difference in remuneration in France between volunteer and professional firefighters constitutes discriminatory treatment under the European Social Charter.
The Committee was contacted by the Solidaires Sdis trade union (Sud Sdis), which considered in particular that the lack of recognition of the status of “workers” of volunteer firefighters, who do not have the status of civil servant, unlike to professional firefighters, nor that of an employee subject to the Labor Code, was detrimental to their rights.
“A vital contribution to public service”
The institution agreed with the union on several points.
She emphasizes that volunteer firefighters “make a vital contribution to the public service, to the point of having become essential to its overall functioning”, and considers that the difference in treatment between volunteer and professional firefighters is “discriminatory”.
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“While 78.6% of French firefighters are volunteers, and they are responsible for 34% to 66% of current firefighting activities”, the amount of compensation represented “less than one quarter of the entire payroll of the civil security system” in 2017, notes the Committee.
This also emphasizes that the provisions limiting the working time of professional firefighters do not apply to volunteer firefighters, for whom “the notion of full time is rendered inapplicable in practice”.
He recalls that “the vast majority of departments do not respect” the obligation to set a ceiling on the working time of volunteer firefighters.
The Committee therefore concludes that there has been a violation of the Charter due to the “failure to take into account all of their working time”, and the “regulatory vacuum” concerning their working time.
Non-binding decision
Finally, the Committee considered that by involving minor volunteer firefighters in firefighting operations, and while the measures to ensure their safety were "insufficient", France had violated the Charter, which requires not exposing of minors in “occupations considered dangerous”.
“We are now waiting to see what the reaction of the French State will be, since this decision, if it finds violations, is not accompanied by specific injunctions,” reacted Manuel Caullet, Sud Sdis national delegate.