Employment of seniors: negotiations are slipping, according to the unions

“The negotiation is still hanging on, but by a thread”, indicated Yvan Ricordeau (CFDT), at the end of a “session which was very complicated”, in particular because of the repeated rejection of the Universal Time Savings Account (Cetu) by Medef and CPME.

“This day has clearly buried Cetu,” said the representative of the CFE-CGC executives union Jean-François Foucard.

The CFDT recalled that the system it is proposing, which would guarantee all employees the right to save leave and transfer it from one company to another, is part of the guidance document given by the government to the social partners. .

For the first union to agree to negotiate a “life at work pact” without Cetu, its management will have to modify the mandate given to its negotiators, explained Mr. Ricordeau.

Medef, for its part, insisted on its idea of ​​senior permanent contracts, which would make it possible to hire older unemployed people with a salary differential compared to their previous position which would be covered by unemployment insurance, the unions reported.

For FO, Michel Beaugas said he did not want “unemployment insurance to pay for employed seniors”. “Today, it will have been a session for nothing,” he judged.

The CFTC left the session before the end: “Every time we propose something, they (the employers) explain to us that we could do without it,” lamented its negotiator Eric Courpotin. “We are not closing the door,” he added.

The CGT insisted on its desire to continue to negotiate in order to “do the maximum to obtain new rights for employees”, through its negotiator Sandrine Mourey.

She added that the negotiations are taking place in a "context which does not allow negotiations in a calm manner", the executive having repeatedly expressed its desire to further tighten the conditions of compensation for the unemployed.

The leaders of the union confederations and employers' organizations met by videoconference on Friday afternoon to discuss the blocking points in the discussions, we learned from the negotiators.

This afternoon meeting was “super important, because we felt that with our negotiators there were a lot of things that were blocking,” CFTC President Cyril Chabanier told AFP. resulting from this new meeting.

“Everyone was able to say the importance of succeeding,” he stressed, saying he was “more optimistic” than after the morning meeting.

On Cetu, "we know that it is complicated", he admitted, ensuring that he was not "requesting a completely finished project", but noting that "between the completely tied up project in the agreement " or nothing, "there is a happy medium to find".

According to him, "the employers understood that if they wanted a broad agreement there would have to be something on Cetu".

Three meetings of negotiators are still scheduled with the aim of concluding at the end of March.