D-day is approaching for the government. Tuesday, January 10, during a press conference at 5:30 p.m., Elisabeth Borne will present her explosive pension reform against which the unions, like the CGT, are already planning to demonstrate. In the process, the Prime Minister will be the guest of the 8 p.m. of France 2, before answering questions from the public on the franceinfo channel.
A track now holds the rope: that of a postponement of the retirement age to 64 years coupled with an acceleration of the extension of the contribution period, which would increase to 43 years (172 quarters) before the fixed horizon 2035 by the Touraine reform of 2014, thanks to an increase in the minimum contribution period by one quarter every two years, or even every year.
Initially, the executive had considered postponing the retirement age to 65. More than two-thirds of French people (68%) are against the postponement to 64, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll. “There will be no deal with the CFDT” in the event of the legal age being postponed and “we will do everything to make the government back down”, warns its leader Laurent Berger.
At the RATP, special closed regimes for new entrants
The executive has undertaken not to go beyond the 43 annuities required to obtain the full rate. In addition, the postponement of the legal age will have no effect on the age for cancellation of the discount, which will remain fixed at 67 years. Thus women, whose careers are more often chopped, will have a full pension at the same age as today, argues the government.
At the RATP as with the electricians and gas operators, the special regimes will be closed for new entrants, as is already the case at the SNCF. And these professions, as well as railway workers and civil servants (including those in the active category), will also have to leave two or three years later than today. This prospect announces a strong mobilization in these union strongholds. The increase in the retirement age could however start a little later in these special schemes, because the Woerth reform of 2010, which has already raised it by two years, will not be fully effective there until 2024.
The creation of a senior index
The government would also be ready to raise, during the parliamentary debate, the minimum pension to 1200 euros for all retirees and not only for new entrants.
On the employment of seniors, the government provides that the quarters carried out within the framework of an accumulation of employment and retirement now count for the pension, but also that access to phased retirement is facilitated and open to civil servants. He wants to create a senior index negotiated in each branch and published by companies with more than 50 employees, accompanied by a penalty for those who do not fulfill this advertising obligation.
The executive also intends to prevent a resumption of activity from being able to result, for seniors, in a loss of remuneration. To this end, the government is considering a bonus that could emerge as part of the unemployment insurance scheme implemented on January 1, 2024.
A pension at 85% of the minimum wage for a full career
Under social justice measures, the executive plans to raise the minimum pension to 85% of the minimum wage for a full career. The unions claim that the measure also concerns current pensioners, and not only new entrants.
The government also wants to allow those who started working young to leave earlier. The departure will always be anticipated by two years for those who have validated five quarters before the age of 20, and could be four years for those who have accumulated ten. Aurore Bergé, the president of the group of Macronist deputies, calls in The Parisian taking into account “learning terms” between 16 and 18 years old for “early departure”.
In terms of arduousness, the reform could take up certain criteria abandoned in 2017 but dear to the unions: carrying heavy loads, painful postures and mechanical vibrations. Finally, the creation of retraining leave for beneficiaries of a professional prevention account (C2P) is under study, as well as the establishment of a fund for the prevention of professional wear and tear for the professions identified as difficult.
Eric Ciotti ready to “vote a fair reform”
Failing to convince the unions, the government hopes to rally the elected Republicans (LR), divided on this reform yet close to what the Senate votes each year, with a majority on the right. Party chairman Eric Ciotti said he was ready, in the Sunday newspaper, to “vote a fair reform” and spread over time, with a retirement age raised to 64 years in 2032 and a minimum of 1200 euros including for current retirees. An LR vote could avoid the use of 49.3 to have the reform adopted, which should go through an amending social security financing bill.
The government quickly welcomed the position of the boss of LR. The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, thus hailed the “responsibility” of the Republicans. He stressed on France 3 that the Republicans, “during the presidential campaign, said that a pension reform was needed with a decline in the legal age”.
The Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire also welcomed the desire displayed by Eric Ciotti, in the opposition, to vote with the majority for “a fair reform” of pensions. “The Republicans are ready to vote for a fair pension reform, that’s good, I think that what we will present is fair and will also be effective from the point of view of the balance of the financial pension system”, he said. declared on France 5. “So a way is possible to find an agreement with the Republicans”, added the number two of the government.
The text will be examined by the Council of Ministers on January 23 but the unions, which meet on Tuesday evening, are planning mobilizations before, while on the left the Nupes will hold meetings on January 10 and 17 and LFI demonstrates on the 21st. bill must pass in committee at the National Assembly from January 30 and in the hemicycle on February 6.