Public strikes loom as France grapples with ongoing crisis

France braced Wednesday for civil servant strikes called the following day over plans to dock their pay during sick leave, disrupting schooling and cancelling flights as the country faces political crisis.

A parliament vote Wednesday evening risks toppling the three-month-old government over a social security budget bill it used executive powers to pass without approval of the chamber.

The unions have called for civil servants, including teachers and air traffic controllers, to strike on Thursday over separate cost-cutting measures proposed by their ministry earlier this autumn.

France's civil aviation authority on Wednesday said it had asked companies to reduce their flights at the main airports outside Paris, as well as those serving the southern cities of Marseille and Toulouse.

"Despite preventive measures, disruptions and delays are still expected," the authority said.

Tensions have been high between unions and the state since the civil service ministry in late October proposed a plan it says will stem absenteeism and save the government more than a billion euros.

Unions have rejected three measures under the new plan: the increase of one to three days of pay docking if they are sick, a loss of ten percent of their full salary if they go on sick leave, and the suspension of a bonus to help with the cost of living if they do so.

In the education sector, some 65 percent of primary school staff are expected to take part in Thursday's strike, according to the FSU-Snuipp union.

At least half of staff in secondary schools are projected to stop work, the Snes-FSU union has said.

Virginie Pregny, an English teacher in Paris, told AFP she would be taking part.

"We feel insulted, humiliated," she said.

Helene, a special needs teacher in the southern Tarn region who did not wish to give her second name, told AFP she would be taking part.

"There's so much contempt from politicians," she said.

"We really feel we're being treated like floorcloths."