Unions and employers were rather positive, Wednesday, July 12, after a meeting in Matignon with the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, to lay the foundations for a new social agenda. The participants did not start from a blank page, relying on the roadmap resulting from discussions held in June.
Employment of seniors, career paths, prevention of professional wear and tear, support for professional retraining, universal time savings account, on which the social partners have agreed to negotiate, were on the menu for discussion.
The challenge was to know what place the government intends to take in these discussions and whether it wants to fall within the framework of article L1 of the labor code which provides that the government should frame the negotiations with a guidance document.
The head of government promised guidance documents “wide” for these tripartite discussions, “who to leave[ont] all their room for dialogue with the social partners”, and reiterates its commitment to “transcribe faithfully and fully into law the agreements that would be found between the social partners directly”.
It is “a useful meeting that finally allows us to have some actions taken”welcomed the new secretary general of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, elected on June 21. “The actions taken are that there will indeed be the opening of a negotiation or several negotiations – this remains to be defined – at the start of the school year”on “the issue of career paths, arduous work, professional retraining, employment of seniors, (…) the universal time savings account »she clarified.
Reconnecting the threads of social dialogue
The secretary general of the CGT, Sophie Binet, was unsurprisingly more critical, believing that“at this stage the answers given by the Prime Minister are totally out of step with the needs”. But she also noted a “trembling of autonomy” by Elisabeth Borne “against the employers”the latter having acceded to the unions’ request to initiate discussions on the subject of the employment of seniors and occupational wear and tear within a tripartite framework, with the sending of a “guiding letter” prior to negotiations, in accordance with article L1 of the labor code.
The boss of FO, Frédéric Souillot, mentioned a “normal day in the context of collective bargaining”and that of the CFE-CGC, François Hommeril, a “very useful meeting” Who “moves in the direction of renewing the threads of social dialogue”. The Prime Minister “proposes to make the social partners responsible (…) in a framework in which we [la CFE-CGC]we understood that it would give indicators so that the balance of power is sufficiently balanced between employers and employees”he said.
It is “an important day is the resumption of social dialogue”, greeted the president of the CFTC, Cyril Chabanier. For him, the negotiations must succeed “for spring 2024” in order to be “applicable to the second half of 2024”.
For Patrick Martin, who will succeed Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux at the head of Medef on July 17, this meeting “fully meets the expectations, philosophy and proposals made by Medef for several months”. “We are not in favor [à l’article] L1 but it is of public order in a certain number of cases and in particular on the employment of seniors and wear and tear, so we will adapt to it.he said.
The boss of the CPME, François Asselin, mentioned a “ambitious agenda” on which it should be possible to arrive at the ” spring “.