The mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, issued an order on Thursday ordering the SNCF to clean the Saint-Charles station, where employees of a private cleaning company have been on strike since August 1 for non-payment of their wages.
"This order is justified by the risk of fire and insalubrity caused by the pile of garbage," said the town hall in a statement, while cans, food packaging and various rubbish accumulate in this station which is one of the largest in France.
Welcome to tourists at Marseille Saint-Charles station. A shame! #Marseille @BenoitPayan @GroupeSNCF @ConnectGares pic.twitter.com/5FjJnowIvu
— Alba Ventura (@VenturaAlba) August 10, 2023
The PS mayor of the city has taken an order "under his police powers, by which he enjoins the company SNCF Gares et Connexions to proceed without delay to a removal of waste and a cleaning of the station," detailed the mayor of Marseille. "In order to guarantee the health and safety of all, the municipality will ensure the execution" of the order, she said.
The company claims to have paid its employees
"More than a dozen (employees) received no salary for the month of June, and many were only paid half. And for several months no one has received a pay slip, "lamented in a statement employees represented by the union CAT Nettoyage, the Union syndicale Solidaires des Bouches-du-Rhône and SUD-Rail Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. They claim in this statement to have "filed a complaint" this Thursday against their employer, Laser Propreté, denouncing the actions of a "rogue boss".
For its part, the private company, also in charge of cleaning the metro, said on Wednesday that "all salaries had been paid" on July 31.
Gare Saint-Charles has already experienced two previous cleaning strikes in 2023. Every year, nearly 16 million passengers pass through the main station of the Phocaean city.