At the first hearing in the Labour Court, specialized in labor law, 200 of the 800 cases were examined on Monday in Paris in the presence of 150 railway employees and some widows. The court is expected to reveal its decision in September. The Board will be reviewing all other records throughout the week.

Hired in the early 70s under a private contract, the retired agents or near retirement, do not gain, for most of them, the special status of Railway, reserved to EU nationals.

SNCF denies any discrimination against these "chibanis" who claim to have been confined to lower levels of qualification and penalized at the time of retirement.

Several complainants believe they have been "ripped off".

"Justice must be done. They said + equal work, equal pay + but this has not been the case. In retirement, we had crumbs, we realized that we had been ripped off" told to AFP, a man of 68 years who prefers to stay anonymous.

"They say we are the indigenous railway employees, just as once were the Moroccan soldiers, it's true. We contributed to the rise of France," said Ksioua Ghaouti, 66, who made his career at the Strasbourg railway station. "You should have seen the work, at night, to compose trains. I know three colleagues who had lost an arm," he recalls.

For this railway naturalized French, one of the 113 plaintiffs who succeed - belatedly - to achieve the status, and became a team leader, these people "do not ask for alms, but justice and equality."

The plaintiffs claim an average of 400,000 euros in damages, half under the Pension injury, the rest for careers. If the Labour Court rules in their favour, the bill would be burdensome for the railway company.

With AFP