{"id":308408,"date":"2025-10-28T18:53:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=66936"},"modified":"2025-10-28T18:53:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:53:39","slug":"eu-commission-approves-e225m-french-scheme-to-reduce-rail-freight-legacy-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=308408","title":{"rendered":"EU Commission approves \u20ac225M French scheme to reduce rail freight legacy costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The French railway group SNCF has a special pension regime for some employees, which requires significant financial resources from the company. The European Commission (EC) has now decided to alleviate this burden for the rail freight sector by approving a 10-year scheme totalling 225 million euros.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>The funds will be used to cover the so-called T2 surcharge, applied only to those workers classified as \u2018cadre permanent\u2019. This is a supplementary contribution provided by SNCF on top of these employees\u2019 gross salaries to pay for their additional benefits. As of 2024, the rate has been set at 14.05% and applies to current SNCF workers. In 2020, the scheme was extended to workers who left SNCF but stayed in the rail freight industry. However, since then, SNCF has stopped classifying employees as \u2018cadre permanent\u2019.<\/p>\n

Retroactive to January 2025<\/h2>\n

It is unclear how much of the total T2 costs will be covered with the 225-million scheme. Data from CPRPF, the entity managing the pension funds of all railway workers, says that it pours seven billion euros in these funds every year. The rail freight sector represents only a small fraction of the total SNCF workforce, estimated at a few of thousands people.<\/p>\n

The Commission\u2019s scheme will be retroactively valid to 1 January 2025. \u201cIf an eligible worker changes job, the aid will be granted to the next employer, as long as this new employer is also a company active in the rail freight sector\u201d, the EC specified. Liberating the companies from these legacy costs, the Commission argued, will thus contribute to developing rail freight in France.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Cadre permanent\u2019 staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

The label of \u2018cadre permanent<\/strong>\u2019 was introduced in the 1930s, when SNCF was nationalised and the government wanted to provide a stable working environment for what was then considered a vital industry. However, with the abolition of this status in 2020<\/strong>, the number of \u2018cadre permanent\u2019 staff will continue to decrease until it will eventually reach zero.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The French railway group SNCF has a special pension regime for some employees, which requires significant financial resources from the company. The European Commission (EC)\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,336,47,6106],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-308408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france","category-policy","category-rail-news","category-sncf","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t