A first meeting to define the outlines of future discussions. This Friday, January 17, François Bayrou invites ten trade union and employer organizations to come and discuss the “framework and method” to be put in place for the future consultation on pensions. Representative social partners, as well as Unsa and FNSEA, are invited to this initial meeting, for which, in addition to the Prime Minister, four other members of the government will be present: the Minister of the Economy Eric Lombard, the Minister of Health and Labor Catherine Vautrin, the Minister of the Civil Service Laurent Marcangeli and the Minister responsible for Labor and Employment Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet.
Work on the pensions file is supposed to last three months. They will only begin when the “flash” mission entrusted to the Court of Auditors on the financing of the pension system is delivered, that is to say in “a few weeks” according to the president of the jurisdiction Pierre Moscovici. “The idea is to exchange, to dialogue and to find compromises for the French,” explains Matignon. The head of government will specify on this occasion his “expectations” with regard to organizations and “the means” allocated to renegotiate the contested 2023 pension reform for three months.
Unions which have set “red lines”
In detail, on the union side, the CFDT, the CGT, FO, the CFE-CGC, the CFTC and the Unsa will therefore come to this meeting, while on the employer side, the Medef, the CPME, the U2P and the FNSEA. Solidaires and the FSU were not invited by Matignon, to the great dismay of the unions. The CFDT and the CGT have also stepped up to the plate in the face of this absence. “This fight against pension reform, we led it with eight, we must be received by eight!”, insisted a source, cited by AFP, at the end of an inter-union meeting held by videoconference this Thursday January 16. During this exchange, the union leaders met to “set the red lines” of the negotiation and each decline their “strategy”, according to unionists.
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister announced in his general policy declaration that he had “chosen to put this subject (pensions, Editor’s note) back under discussion with the social partners”. The meeting this Friday, which will take place at the Ministry of Labor, is expected to start around 11 a.m. and last approximately 1.5 hours. After an introductory statement from François Bayrou, each representative will have the floor to express their vision. This meeting will make it possible to specify the “organization”, “the composition” and the upcoming announcement of the personality who will lead this “conclave”, AFP learned.
Once the consultation begins, the partners will have three months to reach an agreement. While waiting for a possible white smoke, employees and civil service agents will continue to gradually pay off their pensions until the fall, as provided for by Elisabeth Borne’s law.