“Serious crisis of social democracy” for employers of the social and solidarity economy
The Union of Employers of the Social and Solidarity Economy (UDES) estimated on Tuesday that France knew “a serious crisis of social democracy” following the adoption of the pension reform without a vote on the text in Parliament. “There is a real problem of method. We are in a serious crisis of social democracy.declared during a press conference the president of the UDES, Hugues Vidor. “There was somewhere a form of denial of social democracy, we wanted to say it as an employers’ organization”he pointed out.
UDES brings together 23 groups and unions of employers (associations, mutuals or cooperatives) which total more than 30,000 companies employing nearly one million employees. Mr. Vidor deplored that the UDES was not sufficiently heard, even if it was received three times by the Minister of Labor Olivier, Dussopt, and that the government did not seek a compromise with all the actors.
“We were not against an acceleration of the Touraine reform” increasing to forty-three years the duration of work to have a full pension “but we consider that, from this point of view, we have undoubtedly missed the possibilities of a compromise”, he observed. According to him, “the legal tool that was used, the amending finance bill, was not necessarily the right one”, shortening the debates in Parliament. As for raising the retirement age to 64, “We can clearly see that in a certain number of branches, this is a problem”he added, citing home help.
“A certain number of seniors will be increasingly in a precarious situation given the convergence between, on the one hand, the extension of the duration” of contributions and, on the other hand, “changes related to unemployment insurance”, according to the president of the UDES. If discussions had taken into account the opinions of all stakeholders, “we could have had a compromise on age, on financial balance, on seniors”he assured.