In 1999, an agreement on working hours was signed by Michel Bulté, Vice-Chairmen of the Parisian Urbanism Agency (Apur) and the Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of building, housing and urbanism.
In 2010 the Labour Inspectorate launched a survey of the implementation of this agreement.
At the outcome of this inspection, procedures were instigated: Apur, an 1901 association – and not the City of Paris-, was condemned for having exceeded the number of legally permitted working hours and fined 220,000 Euros as a legal person and the Director, considered as the chief executive officer according to the articles, 50,500 Euros. Apur appealed against this sentence.
Another legal procedure concerned the non-payment of overtime hours worked. The verdict was to have been pronounced on 15th February 2012.
Apur draws attention to the fact that the non-payment of hours worked overtime was the socially accepted counter-part of the 35 hour week agreement signed in 1999 granting its employees 7 weeks paid holiday and 23 days off -RTT- as compensation in compliance with the 35 hour week labour law.
Immediately following the Work Inspectorate Report discussions began between representatives of the personnel, culminating on 22nd December 2011 in the signing of three collective agreements: one planned the creation of a savings account of time worked, the second dealt with hours worked overtime and their compensation or payment, the third with the compensatory days / daily wages.
Apart from this the overtime hours were paid both in 2010 and 2011 and the hours exceeding the legal quota ceased as from 2011.
During the board meetings of 29th November 2011 and 31st January 2012 chaired by Anna Hidalgo, this information was given to all the administrators, be they representatives of the State (Regional Prefect, Chief of Police...), Paris City Council, majority and opposition alike, Regional Council. All those present considered that at no time had these subjects been treated lightly by the management as suggested by a recent, misinformed article in the press. On the contrary, they all expressed their solidarity with the Apur teams and expressed the desire to avoid any repercussions as was expressed by representatives of the personnel.
One can therefore only regret the fleeting attendance of Mr Jérôme Dubus at the Board Meeting of 29th November 2011 and his absence at the one on 31st January 2012, which evidently prevented essential elements for a clear understanding of these subjects to be appraised.
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