French premier says will override opponents of civil service pay reform

By Emmanuel Jarry PARIS (Reuters) - The French government said on Wednesday it would override labour union opposition to a plan for measured wage civil service pay rises, in a move showing Prime Minister Manuel Valls's frustration with the pace of policy reforms. Valls, regarded by many fellow Socialists as overly liberal on economic issues, said he would not allow recalcitrant unions to block implementation of a wage programme that had already been under discussion for a year. "Standstill is not an option for our country," said Valls, whose appointment as prime minister 18 months ago was taken as a signal that President Francois Hollande wanted a more pugnacious second-in-command to challenge the status-quo leanings of old-school left-wingers. "The government will live up to its responsibilities," Valls told public radio station France Inter. The pay plan drafted by Civil Service Minister Marylise Lebranchu would be implemented even if it had marginally missed the level of union support that the government initially accepted as necessary. Civil servants, whose salaries have been capped for several years as the government tries to honour European commitments to reduce its public-sector deficit, would see measured pay rises phased in from 2017 onwards. Lebranchu says the plan covering the period 2017-2020 would raise the starting salary of civil servants by between 500 euros ($561) and 1,889 euros a year while the rises would range from just over 1,000 euros to as much as 2,111 euros ($2,366)for people with a far longer time in the job. "Killing off this deal would be catastrophic for the civil service," she said. The pay issue came to a head when the large CGT union announced on Tuesday it and some smaller unions would not sign the deal, leaving Lebranchu with support from unions representing 49 percent of civil service employees -- marginally short of the absolute majority that the government initially said would be enough to go ahead. The standoff also coincided with the unveiling of the 2016 budget bill, in which the government is seeking to pursue its strategy of deficit containment with limited tax cuts in what will be the last year before the 2017 presidential election. The deal is supported by the other large labour union, the more moderate CFDT, and several smaller unions. In a statement, the CGT union made it clear its misgivings about the pay deal went beyond the lack of progress on pay. The union said its gripes about government commitment to the public service had been compounded by recent declarations in which Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron - a former investment banker who has become the bete noire of hardline Socialists - suggested the status of France's civil servants was no longer appropriate. (Writing By Brian Love; Editing by Geert De Clercq and Angus MacSwan)