To promote the return to work of seniors, those who are unemployed and find a job less well paid than the previous one could continue to receive part of their allowance, suggests the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, in an interview with the Journal of Sunday.
The low employment rate of seniors is often brandished as an argument against the government’s pension reform, which plans to raise the retirement age to 64 and then 65 by 2031 to ensure the financial balance of the system. For the Minister, the poor results of France compared to its neighbors can be explained in part because our economic system does not have the culture of employing seniors. He also points the finger at devices that can be perceived as encouragement for employers to part with seniors, such as the maximum duration of unemployment compensation, which, from the age of 55, goes from 24 to 36 months.
To promote the return to work of those over 55, one of the avenues could be to allow a senior who accepts a less well-paid job to keep part of his unemployment benefit in order to compensate for the loss of earnings. We can work on it, says Olivier Dussopt, who also wants to promote gradual retirement and combined retirement employment.
Professional Index
The creation of a professional employment index for seniors, on the model of that for equality between women and men, will be part of the discussions that the minister, who is steering the reform of pensions and that of unemployment insurance, will have with the social partners in the coming weeks. It also mentions incentive mechanisms, for example in the form of exemptions from social security contributions for companies.
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But for him the best way to keep seniors in employment is to improve working conditions and fight against the consequences of professional wear and tear, topics that will also be on the menu of consultations with unions and employers.
On the question of raising the legal age, which all the unions oppose, this will be concerted, but we need raise the average starting agehe insists, while considering introducing a review clause, which can be a way of taking a date in the future to take stock.
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