For a bit, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, the boss of the Medef, and Philippe Martinez, the general secretary of the CGT, would be ready to pound the pavement together, hand in hand. United with all the trade unions – from the most reformist to the most radical – and the representatives of employers in one and only goal: to prevent the government from pulling off the heist of the century. While the French have their eyes riveted on THE pension reform and the decline in the retirement age, another big bang is in the making, less spectacular, more arid, but just as political: that of supplementary retirement.
On paper, it’s just a dark pipe story. By a simple article included in the last social security bill voted in the National Assembly at the end of 2022 by 49.3, the government authorizes the State, via Urssaf, to directly collect all the contributions paid by employees and companies under supplementary pensions. And this, from January 2024. A transfer that says nothing to neophytes but which, however, changes everything.
To understand what is at stake, just dissect his pay slip and discover, in the long list of levies, a small line, that of Agirc-Arrco contributions. This is a payment intended to finance the mandatory supplementary pension. Nearly 30 million French people working in the private sector contribute to it and 14 million retirees benefit from it. For seventy-five years, this scheme has been managed jointly by all the social partners, employee unions and employers. And on average, the “complementary” represents 30 to 60% of the total amount of pensions paid to the French. “It’s a German-style co-management model that works very well. Why does the state want to regain control?” asks François-Xavier Selleret, the general manager of Agirc-Arrco.
“We do not defend the system for reasons of shop, border or perimeter, we defend it because it is quite simply the best managed”, annoys Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. The statistics don’t lie. In 2021, Agirc-Arrco generated nearly 2 billion euros in surpluses and posted some 68 billion in reserves. Above all, she has no debt… The year 2022 should be just as comfortable. A financial health to make green with envy the accountants of Bercy rather accustomed to the mountain of deficits of the State or the social accounts. Especially since with the decline in the retirement age, the fund should pay fewer pensions and receive more contributions, a potential gain of 2 billion additional euros each year.
A big bang in the making of 2018
It was in 2018, during discussions on the previous pension reform, that the idea was born: since the system will be universal, all contributions will be merged. The Covid killed the Macron reform, but Bercy kept the idea of getting his hands on the jackpot. “What guarantees us that the government will not use part of the contributions to finance anything other than private pensions”, worries Yvan Ricordeau, of the CFDT. “When you lose control over collection, you lose control over all management”, abounds François-Xavier Selleret.
In the government, to justify this transfer, we put forward the arguments of simplification. With potential savings of almost 200 million euros per year. “Can”, replies the boss of Agirc-Arrco. Since 2018 and the creation of the DSN – the nominative social declaration – companies have only completed one document, which is then made available to all collecting bodies.
Fill the boxes
The real reason for this stranglehold would rather be to be found on the side of the State and its frantic quest for fresh money. “Through this sleight of hand, the government wants to have private sector employees finance part of the pensions of civil servants, which are very in deficit and which weigh heavily in the state accounts. We will never accept it”, s ignites François Hommeril, the general secretary of the CFE-CGC.
Behind the rantings, the social partners do not really have a choice. “With each reform of the social model, their power has been eroded: yesterday it was unemployment insurance, today it is supplementary pension. This government which calls itself liberal is in reality deeply collectivist”, attacks Bruno Chrétien, director of the Institute for Social Protection. In the meantime, for the unions, it is an additional nail in the coffin of French jointism.