HARDSHIP. The pension reform should make it possible to take better account of hardship at work. Access to the professional prevention account (C2P), allowing employees with a difficult job to leave earlier, will notably be extended to 60,000 additional people.
[Mis à jour le 11 janvier 2022 à 11h31] Hardship at work is one of the points scrutinized in the 2023 pension reform project. The government has presented it as one of the priority areas of its reform. During the presentation of the project at a press conference on January 10, 2023, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne assured that she wanted to “take into consideration the professional wear and tear linked to the conditions of exercise of certain professions yesterday and today”, before add: “We must better recognize the impact of other constraints on the health of workers, in particular the carrying of heavy loads or painful postures”.
Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt also listed some proposals. If the project were to succeed, access to the C2P (professional prevention account) will be extended to more employees, more than 60,000 per year, to allow as many people as possible to benefit from its advantages. As a reminder, this system makes it possible to accumulate points so as to retire earlier, according to six hardship criteria: night work, work in successive alternating shifts, repetitive work, activities in a hyperbaric environment , extreme temperatures or even noise.
With the new reform, people doing a difficult job will be able, according to the government, to acquire points more quickly in this famous C2P, so as to obtain a retraining leave, to change jobs more easily and have access to a job less exposed to certain risks. One medical monitoring for certain employees will now be taxed at mid-career, and a “Investment Funds in the prevention of professional wear and tear” of one billion euros will be put in place.
The occupational risk factor(s) are characterized by employee exposure beyond certain thresholds. This exposure can leave lasting, identifiable and irreversible traces on health. To be taken into account, exposure to an occupational risk factor must exceed certain thresholds. They must have a minimum intensity and duration. These minimum values are assessed taking into account the means of collective or individual protection implemented by the employer. For example, for night work, the minimum intensity is one hour of work between midnight and 5 am. The minimum duration is 120 nights per year.
Precisely, the pension reform will activate certain levers to widen access to C2P and support employees heavily exposed to certain risks, in particular night workers. The number of nights worked per year taken into account in the C2P could also go from 120 to 100. Also, the thresholds triggering a job as “difficult” will be lowered and the number of cumulative points will be capped. Currently, the ceiling is set at a gain of 8 points per year. Then, the account will fund a retraining leave, so as to change professions during their careers for certain professions extremely subject to certain risks, which was not possible before the reform. For civil servants, the “active categories”, namely the police, firefighters and caregivers will retain their right to early departure.
The carrying of heavy loads, painful postures and mechanical vibrations, three criteria of arduous work which had been abandoned in 2017, have finally not reinstated as the unions would have liked. Nevertheless, the employees concerned will be offered a “reinforced medical follow-up“ from mid-career. On medical advice, these same employees may obtain an adaptation of their position and/or working time. They will also be able to benefit from enhanced access to retraining. In the most critical cases, a early departure from age 62 can finally be offered to them. Also, a “investment fund in the prevention of occupational wear and tear” of one billion euros will be created. A second fund will be created for hospital staff, retirement homes and medico-social establishments.
The conditions for early departure for people affected by systems for recognizing disabilities will be preserved, in the same way as for disability, incapacity and exposure to asbestos. If an employee is the victim of an accident at work, or an occupational disease, he can always retire two years before the legal retirement age, i.e. 62 years old with the new reform. The conditions of access to this early departure will be relaxed. Finally, a new feature will come into force concerning the caregivers. Years spent with a person with a disability will be counted in the calculation of early departures, which was not the case until then. Same thing for the quarters spent in community work. Here is the new legal age for early retirement which could apply in certain very specific cases in the event of the implementation of the 2023 pension reform:
- Disability recognition : 55 years old at full rate
- Disability : 62 years old at full rate
- Incapacity : 62 years old at full rate
- Asbestos exposure : 50 years at full rate