Employment of seniors: employers and unions meet on Monday for a final round of negotiations before the launch announced by the government of a new unemployment insurance reform (AFP/Sameer Al-DOUMY)
A last chance meeting to hope to reach an agreement on “life at work” and the employment of seniors: employers and unions meet on Monday for a final round of negotiations before the launch announced by the government of a new reform unemployment insurance.
The employers submitted this week to the union organizations a second version of the draft agreement which will serve as a basis for negotiations, which could continue late into the night from Monday to Tuesday.
If the social partners reach an agreement, the government is committed to translating this text into law, which should notably increase the employment rate of seniors. At this stage, however, the outcome of the discussions is more than uncertain.
The employer’s project has only been slightly amended compared to the previous version. It provides in particular for measures concerning retraining and professional interviews throughout one’s career.
It creates an “experience enhancement contract” to facilitate the hiring of older unemployed people. Initially called “CDI seniors”, this contract can be terminated by the employer as soon as the employee can retire at full rate, a red line for unions.
Before the age of 60, all employees will be offered the transmission to the employer of the date on which they will have reached this full rate, with employers’ organizations highlighting their need for “visibility”.
– Cetu absent from the text –
Social dialogue on the employment and working conditions of seniors will be compulsory in companies with 300 or more employees. The employers had initially set the threshold at more than 1,000.
“We are not there at all”, reacted in an interview with Le Monde the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet, who does not see in the employers’ project “any measure which draws the consequences of the pension reform”.
The general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet, photographed in Paris on March 14, 2024 (AFP/JOEL SAGET)
“The CFDT is waiting for employers to really move so that the transition (from retirement) to 64 does not further degrade working conditions,” CFDT negotiator Yvan Ricordeau told AFP.
With this text, “the employee will have fewer rights than he currently has”, estimated his CFTC counterpart, Eric Courpotin.
The project gives “more clarity for the company and fewer rights for employees”, also comments Jean-François Foucard, of the CFE-CGC.
The Universal Time Savings Account (Cetu), promoted by the CFDT but rejected by Medef and the CPME, is absent from the employers’ text.
It could, however, be the subject of separate negotiation at the initiative of the Union of Local Enterprises (U2P), the third employers’ organization which represents craftsmen, liberal professions and traders. For U2P, Cetu can improve the attractiveness of very small businesses.
– Quickly obsolete –
After the negotiations which end on Monday, the unions signatories of last November’s unemployment insurance agreement (CFDT, FO and CFTC) and the three employers’ organizations must sign “before April 15” an amendment on compensation for seniors . This involves raising the age limits by two years to benefit from longer compensation, paving the way for the validation of the joint agreement by the government.
But this convention should quickly become obsolete since Gabriel Attal has already announced a new reform of unemployment insurance “in 2024”, despite the hostility of part of his majority and that of the unions.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during a question session to the government at the National Assembly in Paris, March 26, 2024 (AFP/JULIEN DE ROSA)
The Prime Minister wants a social model that is more “incentivizing” a return to work by further tightening the conditions of compensation for the unemployed. For the CFDT, unemployment insurance cannot be “a budgetary adjustment variable”.
It is “probable that a new framework letter will be sent” to the social partners in order to negotiate a new agreement, confirmed Wednesday the Minister of Labor Catherine Vautrin during a debate in the National Assembly.
The leader of the Renaissance deputies Sylvain Maillard promoted on Sunday on franceinfo a reform to “align with the European average”, citing the German case, “for example on rechargeable rights”.
Over the last 24 months, you would have to “at least have worked 12 months to benefit from unemployment insurance. There is nothing scandalous,” he said.
© 2024 AFP
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