"Management wants to pass the buck to the buyers": RATP employees exposed to chemical pollution are mobilizing

"Toxic products" , "Dangerous for health" : this Tuesday, April 29, in front of the Paris industrial tribunal, around fifty agents solemnly displayed these pictograms on their T-shirts. "We handle products with these logos on a daily basis," warns Nuno Martins, general secretary of RATP GISO, brandishing a photo of thick white smoke emanating from a maintenance room. 75 maintenance agents are suing the management of the Paris region authority for "anxiety damage" in the face of chemical pollution and the lack of prevention .

Since 2020, a dozen formal notices and letters of observation from the labor inspectorate have failed to elicit a response from management. A second external audit commissioned by the Social and Economic Committee (CSE), revealed in January 2025 , highlighted the health and safety of employees on the RATP bus network.

" Maintenance workers are exposed to significant chemical risks, including dangerous chemical agents, carcinogens, mutagens, and reprotoxic substances, as well as toxic fumes generated by certain operations," points out the expert report by 3CSE, which L'Humanité was able to consult, but which RATP management contested. Since then, the Saint-Denis maintenance facility has received three formal notices, as did the Asnières facility last week.

"We called on management, we issued social alarms, dozens and dozens of DGI (Serious and Imminent Dangers) warnings, we went through all the levels," laments the union representative. "After a while, we got fed up! The industrial tribunals are just an obvious next step in the face of management's inaction!" the staff representative asserts into the microphone.

Workers point to a failure of collective protective equipment and insufficient risk prevention. "I remember arriving at my workplace and seeing a perfect distinction between the bus exhaust fumes and the room," says Alain Duigou, a mechanic who retired in January 2025. "They changed the filters from time to time to ease their conscience, but there were never any concrete measures to stem the pollution."

The newly retired man with a damaged voice blames "an incessant turnover" of site managers: "between 2019 and 2024, I changed managers four times, they constantly pass the buck. " "I'm counting my years," he continues. "They say we're privileged because we retire early, but how many die prematurely 2-3 years later?" Nuno Martins continues emotionally.

"It's a matter of profitability, and they think they'll get away with the sale," denounces Riadh, a CGT representative on the workplace health committee. "Employees are not numbers, but human beings." While the Paris region's public utility company assured that it would go "100% electric" by 2024, the results are not there. "They don't want to put in the resources. In the end, we won't have reached 70% electric by 2027-2028 ," says the general secretary of RATP GISO. "In the meantime, we continue to breathe in these pollutants? And what will happen to those who retire? If the disease breaks out?"

With these industrial tribunal proceedings, union members hope for the implementation of concrete measures, "from RATP, subsidiaries, and buyers" , and the recognition of occupational illness. In mid-November, Ile de France Mobilités unveiled the first of 13 batches of privatized buses . The first transfers of agents to the new operators will take place from November ^1, 2025. "Management's desire is to pass its hot potato to the buyers," protests a staff representative, as he comes under the direction of CAP at the end of the year.