2023-10-16 07:53:30
The atmosphere will undoubtedly be special in the corridors of the Palais d’Iéna, where the executive invited unions and employers for the social conference on Monday October 16. A meeting long requested by the unions, but which Emmanuel Macron had refused to organize throughout the pension reform conflict.
“He is not organizing this conference at our request. Nuance: he does it at the request of political parties”, recalled the general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, in her joint interview with her CGT counterpart, Sophie Binet, Sunday October 8 atLa Tribune Sunday.
“The conception and birth of this social conference are strange: we asked for it in June and it turns out that it came out a little magically from the meeting in Saint-Denisnotes a union official. We have the feeling that the firms didn’t really know what to put in it and that they learned it at the same time as us.. The proof: the themes have evolved gradually since its announcement. »
“I am a little surprised to see the scope of this conference broaden”
“I am a little surprised to see the scope of this conference broaden,” noted the president of Medef, Patrick Martin, Thursday before the Association of Social Information Journalists (Ajis), regretting that several subjects bite into the “autonomous agenda” that the social partners had already set. “A certain number of subjects are already covered in our own negotiations. I’m not making a drama out of it, but on a methodological level, it’s a bit problematic, not to say disrespectful.” noted the “boss of bosses”.
For several months, and despite the pension reform, unions and employers have not stopped negotiating: on unemployment insurance (with a government executive), the employment of seniors, career paths, the time savings account universal. They reach agreements, such as on value sharing or, very recently, on Agirc-Arrco, the supplementary pension plan for private sector employees.
On this last subject, the social partners have engaged in a standoff with the government which, rejecting the decided increase of 4.9% in the pensions of private sector retirees, wishes to take up to 1 billion euros from the coffers of the private sector. diet. What he could do via an amendment to the Social Security financing bill.
“We are quite questioning”
“This choice of the government will impact the social conference”, confirms a union official. But if the government’s attitude exasperates the social partners, with some speaking of ” robbery “it’s not “to the point that Medef will request the indexation of salaries to inflation”, smiles Patrick Martin, for whom « the joint interview of Marylise Léon and Sophie Binet at La Tribune Sunday does not augur a consensus on all subjects”.
Thus the central question of salaries, on which the president of Medef nevertheless assures that “the companies did the job”, but where the unions would like much more. However, he says he is ready to work on gender equality and part-time work, subjects dear to the general secretaries of the two main unions.
“We are still quite interrogative, insists Patrick Martin. On the one hand, the government makes statements that are rather pleasant to our ears but, on the other hand, its actions sometimes go against its words. » Between defense of supply policy and autonomy of intermediary bodies, the “boss of bosses” insists: “We must ensure that the social partners find their rightful place. »
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