The right sees in it a return to the philosophy carried by Nicolas Sarkozy behind the slogan that has become an adage, ” Work more to earn more “. The left discerns, on the contrary, a disastrous hoof kick every 35 hours. By definitively adopting the amending finance bill (PLFR), Thursday, August 4, the deputies and senators ratified two measures which were the subject of strong political disagreement: on the one hand the possibility for employers to buy back the RTT of their employees until December 31, 2025 (for a maximum ceiling of 7,500 euros), and on the other, the permanent increase in the tax exemption ceiling for overtime hours (from 5,000 to 7,500 euros).
It was under pressure from Les Républicains (LR) deputies in a Hemicycle where it only has a relative majority that the presidential camp, in search of compromise and favorable to the spirit of the provisions, gave the green light . In the Senate, right-wing elected officials have tried to go further by perpetuating the two devices, yet limited to the years 2022 and 2023 in the first version voted in the Assembly. After the adoption of these amendments in session, they emerged winners of the compromise found Wednesday in the joint committee.
Measures defended for a long time by the right
The monetization of RTT and the tax exemption of overtime, included in the presidential program of Valérie Pécresse in the spring, belong to the ideological roadmap of the right. In 2007, seven years after the implementation of the Aubry laws on the reduction of the legal duration of working time to 35 hours, Nicolas Sarkozy had thus made himself the apostle of the tax exemption of overtime, before the measure took effect. either deleted by François Hollande – then reintroduced by Emmanuel Macron in 2019.
Throughout the discussions, arguing that these measures made it possible to revalue work and to grant employees a gain in purchasing power, the elected LRs therefore played with their voices to imprint their mark. “We assume perfectly to put a corner within 35 hours”, thus launched on Monday 1er August Senator Christine Lavarde (Hauts-de-Seine). The leader of senators LR Bruno Retailleau also argued that “the 35 hours are certainly not a gain and a social advance for everyone”, when MP Véronique Louwagie (Orne) welcomed Thursday the “return of the” Work more to earn more”, dear to the Republicans”, “so that the work always pays more than the assistantship”.
“Coup de force” aimed at “killing the 35 hours”
On the left, the outcry was substantial. Denouncing a “coup de force” without union consultation aimed at “to kill the 35 hours”, the elected officials believe that these two devices serve as a pretext for the government to circumvent the question of the revaluation of wages, which they nevertheless brought in vain during the debates.
“Because they will want to maintain their purchasing power at all costs and because you are refusing them a salary increase, [les salariés] will have no other choice than to give up their rest time”, castigated Socialist MP Christine Pires Beaune (Puy-de-Dôme) on Thursday. “It is also an attack on the financing of our social model since the measures provide for exemptions from social security contributions and tax”, underlines the ecologist deputy Julien Bayou (Paris).
The socialist senator Rémi Féraud (Ile-de-France) therefore criticizes a “Very assumed Sarkozization of Emmanuel Macron’s policy” which, according to him, “open Pandora’s box of social regression”. His colleague from the Assembly Mickaël Bouloux (Ille-et-Vilaine) warned in session that elected officials from Nupes would seize the Constitutional Council on the RTT in order to verify the conformity of “the modification of the labor code within a finance law” that they doubt.
“Old Recipes”
On the side of the unions, the anger is similar. “Instead of wanting to influence companies’ wage policies, raising the issue of sharing the value produced, considering changes in work and its intensification, Parliament is serving us old recipes”, regretted the general secretary of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, in a tweet.
The CGT has criticized, in a press release published Thursday, the “use of RTT monetization”which poses ” several questions “including that of “the questioning of the legal duration of working time”, “in a context where many struggles in companies are waged to work less but all and better”.
Also regretting “the questioning of the 35 hours”Frédéric Souillot, secretary general of Force Ouvrière, questioned the scope of the measure, Thursday on RTL: “How many employees will be affected? Those who are on a day pass will not be entitled to it. [Ceux de] not all companies where there is a time savings account will be entitled to it either. »
But in the presidential camp, these accusations are referred to “false trial”. “The redemption of RTT is an option, it is not an obligation. We are not changing the legal weekly working time, which remains at 35 hours.thus tried to reassure the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, Thursday before the deputies.
For Jean-René Cazeneuve, general rapporteur of the text, “It’s laughable to bring out the 35-hour shot”, while these measures “respond to a request from the French”, fall within the scope of labor law and include “safeguards to prevent any abuse”.
He points out that for the takeover of RTT, “the double consent of the employer and the employee is necessary”, while for both devices the “maximum ceiling for converting time into money is set at 7,500 euros”. Highlighting the shortcomings of the purchasing power package in terms of wages, the unions are calling for general mobilization on 29 September.