The government must unveil its pension reform this Tuesday, January 10, but the unions are united against the project which provides for the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 or 65 years. What do they offer instead?
It’s D-Day! Discussed behind the scenes for several months, the pension reform will finally be unveiled by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, this Tuesday, January 10, 2023. Some main lines of the bill are known, with more or less certainty, such as the decline in the legal retirement age at 64 or 65 and are already provoking the ire of the trade unions. The pension reform deemed essential by Emmanuel Macron since his first five-year term has never found an echo with the trade unions. And if the announcements of the head of government will be followed carefully by the union representatives, the latter will meet in stride at the Bourse du Travail, close to the Place de la République, to prepare the counter-attack.
No less than eight unions and five youth organizations – CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC, CFE-CGC, Unsa, FSU and Solidaires, but also Fage, Unef, VL, FIDL and MNL – answered the call. A historic inter-union as the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez likes to remind the government, writes South West “I told the Prime Minister that she had achieved a feat: it had been twelve years since all the trade union organizations had united against a reform”. And already at the time, it was against the previous pension reform that the trade union was organized. At this meeting, the unions must determine a date and the slogan of the first mobilization against the government reform which, they hope, will be followed by a long series. The dates of January 19 and 24 are brought forward.
Why do unions oppose pension reform?
“It must be clear, even with positive measures on long careers or hardship, we remain opposed to reform with an age measure. There will be no deal”. Here is what the boss of the CFDT Laurent Bergé reaffirmed on January 7 in the columns of the Parisian, a firm position shared by the entire inter-union. There is therefore no doubt that what poses a problem in the pension reform devised by Emmanuel Macron is the postponement of the age to 64 or 65 against 62 today: “The age parameter is the most unfair and the more anti-redistributive. Those who will be most affected are those who will have their 43 years of contributions at 62 and will have to leave at 64 or 65”. But the unions also find fault with the criteria of arduousness or the taking into account of long careers or long studies which according to them are not sufficiently integrated into the calculation of contributions to allow early retirement.
What do the unions propose to reform pensions?
If they are headwinds against pension reform, the unions are not against change. All defend proposals to change the terms of retirement, but the ideas put on the table are more often in the direction of an advancement of the retirement age. An untenable long-term vision according to the government, which defends its reform by the financial imbalance and the deficit caused by the current regime, which could reach one billion euros in 2030.
- CFDT : the union protests against the decline in age, but considers positively the assessment of 85% of the minimum wage as the minimum amount for the basic pension. The union’s fight also concerns the taking into account of hardship criteria with the reinstatement of four criteria evaded in 2017 (arduous postures, manual handling of loads, mechanical vibrations, exposure to dangerous chemical agents) and maintaining of the long career scheme.
- CGT : here the union members are campaigning for the return of retirement at 60 and the revaluation of retirement pensions at least at the level of the Smic to 2000€. The union also wants the years of study to be taken into account and considers that these measures can be financed by the end of exemptions from contributions for large companies or by increasing contributions.
- OF : the union members of Force Ouvrière defend the maintenance of special schemes in addition to the return of the retirement age to 60 years.
- CFTC : the secretary general of the CFTC Pascale Coton wants the pension reform to include proposals concerning “small pensions and long careers”.
- CFE-CGC : on the executive side, the union members are campaigning for a retirement allowed from the age of 60 but progressive according to the positions occupied.
- Unsa : the union is categorically opposed to raising the retirement age and would like the retirement age currently set at 62 to be able to change with better recognition of the factors that make work difficult. It also pays particular attention to the employment of seniors over the age of 55.
- USF : like its colleagues from other unions, the organization opposes “any decline in the legal retirement age, as well as any increase in the contribution period”.
- Solidarity : here is another union which defends the return of the retirement to 60 years but it adds the idea of the funds of complementary pensions integrated in the basic plan. The organization also makes the original proposal to adopt the 32-hour week to share the work between the assets.
Employers’ unions in favor of pension reform
If the trade unions make their opposition heard at the time of the presentation of the pension reform, the employers support the government’s project. The unions representing the bosses say they agree with Emmanuel Macron on the “urgency” to reform the too expensive pension system. Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, patron of the Medef judges that we have “no longer a choice” on the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 or 65, but also recognizes the duties of companies which “have an effort to make to recruit and retain seniors “, reports South West. On LCIthe boss of bosses, however, attached more importance to the arduousness of the work than the government: “There is a gap depending on the professions, taken into account with what is called long careers or arduousness, but it must also take into account the life expectancy by profession”.
About the CPME and theU2Pthey are in favor of “gradually raising the legal retirement age on the condition of maintaining specific measures (long careers, disability…)”, resumes France info.