It is companies with more than 300 employees who will have to put it in place from July 2024. The senators voted for article 2 of the pension reform, but modified it.
The right-wing dominated Senate approved on the night of Sunday to Monday the creation of a “senior index” in companies, on the place of the oldest, but only for those with more than 300 employees, during the examination of the pension reform project. The parliamentarians thus adopted article 2 of the bill by 244 votes against 96, after more than seven hours of debate. The government relied on the “wisdomof the senators, who removed the obligation of this index for companies with more than 50 employees, a threshold which had been added by the National Assembly last month.
The index will be mandatory from November 2023 for companies with more than 1,000 employees, and for those with more than 300 employees from July 2024. Employers will be liable to financial penalties in the event of non-publication of this index, but no no obligation of result has been set with regard to the employment of seniors. The left railed against this index for a long time, pointed like a “legislative rider“, and perceived as “a gadget” and one “lure“.
“Is the government ignoring the plight after 55 years” while “many seniors cannot find jobsasked the socialist Monique Lubin, worrying like others about the effects of raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years old. “The index is as useful as the toll free number to fight the heat wave“Launched the communist Fabien Gay.
Read alsoThe procrastination of the government on the “senior index”
The senior index is “a first stone”
Conversely, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt defended “a tool for measuring the involvement of companies“. “We were inspired by the professional equality index (women-men, editor’s note), with which companies have improved their rating» and the senior index constitutes «a first stone“, he added. The senatorial right said yes to the index, a simple “photography“, but on condition that there is no additional sanction and that its field is reduced.
In larger companies,we can build a truly ambitious employability policy for seniors“, Supported the rapporteur for the old age branch, René-Paul Savary (LR). He stressed that the threshold of 300 employees was also the threshold for the obligation to negotiate on the forward-looking management of employment and skills. The smallest companies do not have sufficient human resources services, also justified elected LR and centrists.
In the National Assembly, the right had voted against article 2, after the extension of the index to companies with more than 50 employees from July 2025. This had caused the rejection of the article, a serious setback for government and presidential majority. Deputies and senators will later have to try to agree on the application thresholds.
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