They promise a “determined” social mobilization in the event of a postponement of the retirement age. Following bilateral meetings organized with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne this Thursday, December 8 in Matignon, union leaders expressed their opposition to the pension reform project. “They are obstinate, I weigh my words, to say that it is necessary to work until 65 years”, denounced the general secretary of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, received in Matignon.
“This reform has a dual objective,” summed up the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, on December 2. The first is to “ensure the balance” of a “structurally deficit” system, which should plunge back into the red next year and post up to 15 billion euros in losses in 2030 if nothing is done. to remedy. The other stated objective is “to improve the system”, he added, referring in particular to “the level of small pensions”, the “prevention of professional wear and tear” and the consideration of “long careers” . The details of the points already decided by the executive, and those which are still under discussion.
- Postponement of the retirement age to 65
A postponement of the retirement age to 65 is the track favored by the executive for its pension reform, reported this Thursday several guests of a dinner at the Elysée on this subject. “Everyone agreed on 65 years”, summarized to AFP a participant at the dinner on Wednesday, where the pension reform fueled “animated” discussions, according to another ministerial source, around the President of the Republic. Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne, with the leaders of the majority and several ministers. “The President of the Republic was firm, he said (…) that he had signed up for 65 years. So we are not going to back down before the match,” added this participant.
The leader of the Renaissance deputies Aurore Bergé, who also participated in this dinner, repeated on LCI this Thursday morning “to assume” a postponement of the starting age to 65 and answered “yes” when the journalist asked her if it was indeed what had been agreed at this dinner. Emmanuel Macron had defended during the presidential campaign a postponement of the legal age from 62 to 65, before evoking once re-elected a decline to 64 years coupled with an increase in the contribution period.
As reported BFM TV as well as The Parisian, the participants in the dinner were however divided: some defended the 64 years, like François Patriat, the boss of the macronist senators or Richard Ferrand, the ex-president of the National Assembly. According to BFMTV, these two relatives of the Head of State pleaded to resume the Senate vote on the Social Security budget last November. The upper house was then positioned in favor of retirement at age 64. The senators had also voted in favor of 43 years of contributions to obtain a full pension from the 1967 generation, and no longer 1973 as is currently the case.
As for the method, the amending bill for the financing of Social Security (PLFSSR) is the “vehicle which is envisaged” for this reform “in order not to mortgage the single cartridge of 49.3”, according to two participants at the dinner. This PLFSSR will arrive at the Assembly at the beginning of 2023.
On budgetary texts, such as the PLFSSR, the government can use as many times as it wishes article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the adoption of a text without a vote. But on a non-budgetary text, he can only use it once per parliamentary session. A specific law on pensions therefore ran the risk for the executive of grilling the only cartridge of the government.
- Long and arduous careers: avenues of work to be arbitrated
Some counterparts are still under discussion, such as the fate of long careers, that is to say workers who really started working young. They can leave two years before the legal age, currently 60, instead of 62, provided they have collected all their quarters, including four or five before 20 years.
As franceinfo reports, if the legal retirement age is raised to 65, these same people will only be able to leave at age 63. With the risk that apprentices who started at 17 will be forced to work for 46 years, much longer than the contribution period necessary to receive a full pension. To avoid this risk, the government plans to allow early retirement four years before the future new legal age, ie 61 if the legal age is pushed back to 65. In an interview at the Parisian on December 1, Elisabeth Borne had specified that the principle of “long careers” allowing to leave before the legal age will be “relaxed for those who really started working very early”.
Another subject still under discussion: taking into account certain hardship factors in the private sector, namely painful postures, carrying heavy loads and mechanical vibrations. As franceinfo notes, before 2017, exposed employees accumulated points that allowed them to retire earlier. From now on, they must wait until they are ill to possibly benefit from retirement for incapacity or invalidity, after medical advice. But this reparation after the fact is not enough for the unions. The government, which does not want to return to the old system, would consider encouraging the number of early departures for incapacity or disability and encouraging the branches to reduce the hardship of exposed trades, with financial means at the key.
On this subject, “we must also allow new uses of the hardship account, for example for retraining leave, explained Elisabeth Borne in her interview. at the Parisian. The subject is complicated, we must not invent a gas plant either.