The government is once again putting on the table a file that angers the social partners. In very recent exchanges with Medef, the Minister of Labor, Catherine Vautrin, indicated that the executive still intends to contribute to Agirc-Arrco, the supplementary private pension fund co-managed, on an equal basis, by employers and unions. For the moment, it is just a simple booster shot, with the government seemingly keen to find a solution through dialogue. But the fact that this project, temporarily put aside during the fall of 2023, is relaunched risks causing, once again, turbulence, with employer and employee organizations being fundamentally hostile to it.
The government’s reasoning remains the same as that it held six months ago. The pension reform of April 14, 2023, by shifting the legal retirement age, makes it possible to achieve savings which could reach 6.2 billion euros in 2026 and almost 14 billion euros in 2030, across the entire our pay-as-you-go system. Part of these “gains” concerns Agirc-Arrco (to the tune of 1.2 billion euros in 2026 and 3.1 billion euros in 2030, according to State figures). The executive considers that it has a say in the use of this windfall, since it is thanks to it that it exists – at the cost of very unpopular decisions. The approach seems all the more justified to him as the private supplementary pension scheme is in surplus and has ample reserves (78.5 billion euros at the end of 2023).
It is based on this logic that the government requested the participation of Agirc-Arrco, shortly before the start of debates on the Social Security financing bill, during the fall of 2023. The social partners were opposed to it at the time.
Transfer to the general regime
But they had done much worse, from the point of view of those in power: on October 5, 2023, Medef and all the unions had concluded an agreement providing for an increase in supplementary pensions by 4.9%. A choice which had enraged the Elysée, Matignon and many elected representatives of the majority because it leads to additional spending which cuts into the savings induced by the pension reform. Patrick Martin, the president of Medef, had suffered reprimands from Elisabeth Borne, then prime minister, but also from Emmanuel Macron. ” Wake up ! »exclaimed the President of the Republic on November 21, 2023, in front of business leaders and employer officials – including Mr. Martin –, before adding: “We have public finances which do not give me the feeling that we can give up the effort. » A sting which primarily targeted the number one at Medef.
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