The government is tweaking a measure that dissatisfies the unions and employers to the highest degree. Included in the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2023, it concerns the collection of Agirc-Arrco contributions, which finance supplementary private pensions. The collection of these contributions will finally be transferred to the Urssaf network from 2024 and not from 2023, as the text initially provided. This arbitration was formalized on Wednesday, October 19, on the eve of the opening of the debates in session at the National Assembly.
Beneath the technical exterior, the dossier actually conceals strong political stakes. At present, the collection of supplementary pension contributions is the responsibility of organizations gathered under the banner of Agirc-Arrco – a joint system co-piloted by employee unions and employer movements. Several years ago, the decision was made to entrust the Urssaf with the collection of these contributions. The stated goal is to simplify the lives of businesses and optimize direct debit operations.
The social partners disapprove of the approach, because it risks, according to them, altering the quality of the calculation of rights, and therefore the amount of the supplementary pension. They also wonder about an operation that could prefigure the capture by the State of the resources of the regime while undermining the joint functioning of the latter. On several occasions, they challenged the government to ask it to abandon its project or – in the case of the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CPME) – to put it off until later.
“The problems remain intact”
The power in place, which refutes the arguments of the unions and employers, has only agreed to review the dates for the implementation of the reform. Thus, in its initial version, the PLFSS provided for a transfer of collection in two stages: from the beginning of 2023 for companies with more than 250 people and the following year for the others. But during the examination of the text by the social affairs commission of the National Assembly, the oppositions rose to the crenel. The link between contributions and entitlements “may no longer be adequately insured tomorrow”raising the threat of “serious disturbances” to the detriment of the insured, said Thibault Bazin (LR, Meurthe-et-Moselle). Elected LR and Democrat group tabled amendments resulting in the abandonment of the transfer, which were voted with the help of the left, against the opinion of the general rapporteur, Stéphanie Rist (Renaissance, Loiret).
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