2023-11-27 19:52:47
Published on Nov. 27, 2023 at 6:09 p.m. Updated on Nov. 27, 2023 at 6:52 p.m.
After several weeks of standoff with the executive over Agirc-Arrco, the unions and Medef are regaining control. This Tuesday morning, they are meeting to begin studying how the supplementary pension plan for private sector employees could contribute to the increase in small pensions promised this year.
The subject has found itself at the heart of strong tensions between the social partners and the government in recent weeks. For the executive, Agirc-Arrco benefits greatly from the pension reform adopted painfully in the spring. The scheme must therefore contribute to the overall balance of the system and the revaluation of pensions for the most modest (up to 85% of the minimum wage).
End of non-receipt
Anxious to keep control of Agirc-Arrco, the unions and Medef sent a refusal to the government in October. The agreement on the steering rules for Agirc-Arrco only provided for its managers to work on “solidarity schemes” for beneficiaries of the scheme (to the great dismay of the CPME and the U2P who rejected the agreement).
Supposed to come to fruition “by the end of the first half of 2024”, the discussions were brought forward to this Tuesday under pressure from the government.
Taking offense at the fact that the social partners are committing “new expenses” (revaluation of supplementary pensions by 4.9% and disappearance of the penalty) without making a move for small pensions, the executive threatened to resort to the Social Security budget to draw directly from the supplementary scheme coffers.
“Concrete and rapid” progress
More precisely, he showed himself ready to go through force after the first reading examination of the budget in the Assembly, if the social partners did not propose “concrete and rapid progress” on co-financing minimum pensions.
In response, Medef undertook to anticipate the discussions planned in the October agreement on “solidarity mechanisms”. The unions do not say what their level of contribution could be.
At the start of the debates on the evolution of the rules for controlling the scheme, a contribution of around 400 million euros per year was mentioned for the revaluation of the pensions of the most modest (contributory minimum).
It remains to be seen whether Agirc-Arrco considers that it still has the same room for maneuver, after the various financial boosts granted to retirees. “We are going to check this figure,” explains Yvan Ricordeau to the CFDT.
The first meeting should be devoted to framing the discussion and in particular its timetable. Several unions insist that discussions be focused on members of the supplementary scheme. “We want to open the debate on what a small retirement at Agirc-Arrco is,” explains Christelle Thieffinne at the CFE-CGC.
The government “trusts”
In any case, the unions and employers, while they are careful not to boast, are no longer counting on a strong move by the executive. And this, even if Emmanuel Macron once again raised his voice against the social partners last week.
The government has secured its budget by cutting back on reductions in charges. And he was also much more conciliatory during the second reading of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) in the Assembly. “The government trusts the social partners to demonstrate responsibility and find an agreement [sur l’Agirc-Arrco] », declared the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau.
The executive even went to support modifications to the text “so that there is no ambiguity on this point”, underlined the minister. For example, he supported an amendment from the Les Républicains group specifying that the agreement provided for in the PLFSS between Agirc-Arrco and the general regime can only be used to balance the special regimes that have been terminated.
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