On April 8, 2024, the Minister of National Education and Youth, Nicole Belloubet, and the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Sylvie Retailleau, signed a majority agreement with representatives of employee organizations to introduce complementary social protection (PSC) for their agents. As a result of a one-year consultation, the Interdepartmental Agreement of January 26, 2022, which refers to additional social protection in terms of covering expenses caused by maternity, illness or accident in the civil service, and the Interministerial Agreement of October 20, 2023, which refers to improvement of social welfare guarantees (inability to work, disability, death) in the state civil service.
The agreement of April 8 proposes a joint regime for the staff of public services and institutions under the supervision of three ministries: the Ministry of National Education and Youth, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Ministry of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Specifically, it will enable the following progression for all their staff:
- Guarantees related to health care and providence (incapacity, disability and death). The three ministries are satisfied that they are “the first ministries to conclude such an agreement on these two aspects”. Membership will be mandatory in health care for staff (except in cases of exemption) and optional in social care, as well as for beneficiaries and pensioners;
- Two optional health guarantees, which open up the possibility of improved protection compared to the inter-ministerial base of guarantees;
- Additional pension guarantees;
- Strengthen solidarity mechanisms for retirees with the application of increased progressivity of their contributions;
- Solidarity mechanisms for families, with a reduction in contributions for children, both for basic guarantees and options;
- Social support fund for the financing of support services, taking into account the health condition and capabilities of the user;
- Health preventive actions.
As stipulated in various agreements, the three ministries will participate in the financing of the new complementary social protection in the health system. The contract concluded on April 8 will be included in public calls for tenders that will enable the determination of a complementary social protection organization for each of the programs (health and social care), effective from January 1, 2025 to January 1, 2026.
In the territorial public service, the legislative and regulatory transfer of the national collective agreement reforming the complementary social protection of territorial public servants from July 11, 2023 is slow. However, this step is necessary to apply its main measures.
According to article L. 827-7 of the General Civil Service Code, management centers have the obligation to offer territorial public employers guarantees from collective agreements. Also, without delay, several of them decided to pre-empt the transfer of the agreement. Like the Territorial Center for the Management of the Public Service of Lot-et-Garonne (CDG 47), which has opened negotiations with territorial public employers and representative trade union organizations and is preparing to launch, in the spring of 2024, a consultation to select an insurance organization that will offer guarantees of group protection employers' insurance for their agents. The same applies to the five management centers in the Pays de la Loire that will launch public insurance markets from April to July 2024.