French railway unions have signed an agreement with the administration of the state-owned operator SNCF on retirement conditions.
The agreement was signed by the four representative trade union organisations within SNCF – CGT Cheminots, UNSA Ferroviaire, SUDRail and CFDT Cheminots. Applicable from January 2025, this historic agreement aims to ensure better conditions for employees of the group’s five railway companies in their final years of employment, particularly for those whose occupations are recognised as having special working conditions, the SNCF press release issued on Tuesday said.
The main objective of this agreement is to give SNCF employees the choice of how to spend the end of their careers: either to retire early with an increased pension or to retire earlier under more favourable conditions, particularly for those with special working conditions.
“With the end-of-career agreement for the benefit of all railway workers, I welcome a first decisive milestone in the implementation of our platform for social progress (…) With four signatures, this historic and innovative agreement will apply from 1 January 2025,” said Jean-Pierre Farandou, Chairman of the SNCF Group.
Better retirement conditions obtained by French railway unions
As Railway Pro wrote last week, the document contains an improvement to the “early retirement” clauses, allowing a retirement without a huge financial penalty. This will allow railwaymen to be paid 75% of their salary in the last 18 months before retirement age, provided they work nine months of that period. Under the current rules, the facility is valid for only one year – six months of which are worked – and the percentage of pay from salary is only 60%.
The facility could be extended to 30 months for employees who have worked under special conditions, such as train drivers. They would be paid 100% for the 15 months actually worked and 75% for the rest.
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