Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at the Elysee Palace on May 16, 2023 in Paris (AFP / Emmanuel DUNAND)
After the unions last week, the employers’ organizations are received Monday and Tuesday at Matignon, to talk in particular about the employment of seniors or defend the degression of unemployment benefits.
The dialogue with the Medef, the CPME and the U2P should be much less confrontational than with the unions of employees who believe they have been “betrayed” after the adoption of the pension reform.
“We are going there to talk about method” and in particular to get the government to resume “any agreements that we would sign” with the unions, told AFP the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux.
The commitment has already been made by the government for the agreement on the sharing of value in business, signed by four unions and which must be transposed into a bill presented at the end of May to the Council of Ministers.
“We made a major effort by agreeing to sign this agreement with the social partners”, warns Jean-Eudes du Mesnil, number two of the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CPME), adding that “he is obviously out of question that we put our hands in our pockets”.
Following the pension reform and the rejection by the Constitutional Council of its provisions on the senior CDI and the senior index, the Medef and the CPME, which will be received at the end of the day on Monday by Elisabeth Borne, hear about the employment of seniors.
Medef President Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux responds to journalists at the Elysée Palace in Paris on April 18, 2023 (AFP / Ludovic MARIN)
Beyond the decline in the retirement age to 64, “if we want to increase the country’s activity rate, we must have a higher employment rate for seniors”, insists Mr. Roux de Bézieux.
The president of the Medef wishes to put on the social agenda the question of the transition between work and retirement “to allow people to retire gradually” as is done in certain countries of Northern Europe.
The CPME for its part will put back on the table its proposal to exempt seniors from unemployment insurance contributions.
“The counterpart is that if the company has to separate from the senior before the retirement age, at that time the company must reimburse all the exemptions that have been granted”, explains Jean -Eudes of Mesnil.
– List of topics –
The first two employers’ organizations also intend to limit the possibility of opening a time savings account in all companies to taking the days saved just before retirement, and not throughout working life as is the case. in some large companies.
The Medef will also defend the degressivity of unemployment benefits, while according to the number one of the CFE / CGC François Homeril, Ms. Borne would consider “letting the social partners come back” on this measure which came into force in February.
On wages, Mr. Roux de Bézieux believes that “private companies have done the job” with an average salary per head up 5.8% according to Urssaf, unlike the state-employer where the increase is “around 2%”.
But he is ready to talk about the problem of the low increase in net salaries between one and two Smic, while according to certain studies, “between 60% and 70% of salary increases are not net”, due in particular to the disappearance of the activity bonus.
In general, “we rather come with a list of subjects we want to discuss, we do not come with our proposals and our solutions”, indicates Mr. Roux de Bézieux who is about to hand over to the head of the Medef.
However, he excludes discussing with the unions subjects on which the positions are too antagonistic, such as wage indexation.
“Social dialogue works when there is grain to grind and there is the will on both sides to find a compromise”, affirms the president of Medef.
The CPME, which also wants to address the housing crisis and the use of the personal training account, claims to be “absolutely not in a defensive state of mind” after the pension reform.
The Union of local businesses (U2P), which represents craftsmen and liberal professions, will be received on Tuesday by Ms. Borne.
© 2023 AFP
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