In a calmer atmosphere than in the National Assembly, the Senate began this Saturday the examination of one of the most sensitive measures of the pension reform project, on the end of several special regimes, a suppression fought by the LEFT. Electricians and gas workers, concerned by this disappearance, began a renewable strike on Friday, which leads to reductions in electricity production in several nuclear power stations, and some hydropower stations, without causing cuts for customers.
Article 1 of the draft reform provides for the gradual extinction of the special regimes of the electricity and gas industries, the RATP, the Banque de France or the clerks and employees of notaries. This will affect agents recruited from September 2023, who will be affiliated to the common law scheme for old-age insurance. The left has tabled some 350 amendments on the subject, which should be on the Senate menu all day Saturday or even Sunday.
First motion rejected
The environmental group immediately defended, but in vain, a motion to refer the disputed article to committee. “It deserves to be more widely debated” because the staff are well “exposed to factors of hardship”, argued their speaker Raymonde Poncet Monge. “This is not a new question” and “today the differences compared to the general system are no longer justified” as to working conditions, retorted the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. The motion was defeated by 251 votes to 91.
The leader of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, wants these special schemes to also be abolished for current employees, but his proposal will be examined later. The government is against, and its amendment could be rejected, for lack of support from the centrists. For the left, the end of special regimes is “an ideological and demagogic proposal”, which will not generate financial gain. “It’s peanuts”, launched the communist senator Pierre Laurent. This suppression “pulls down” everyone.
The general rapporteur Élisabeth Doineau (Centrist Union) retorted: the trades concerned “are they as painful yesterday as today? “. According to her, “we have to open our eyes, we are asking all French people to make an effort, whoever they are”. “The senatorial majority is consistent in its positions”, in favor of a “convergence” with the general scheme, also argued René-Paul Savary, LR rapporteur for the old age branch, wondering about the last three special schemes which are not affected by the government’s project (the sailors, the Paris Opera and the Comédie Française).
In these three areas, the “physical conditions” require maintenance, replied the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. But for the others, the “working conditions” no longer justify a difference in treatment.