Senate votes for new "contribution" of 7 hours of work per year without pay to shore up Social Security

After heated debates within the framework of the Social Security budget for 2025, the upper house approved this measure by 216 votes to 119, which would be added to the "solidarity day" already practiced and targeted towards old age and disability.

The government said it was opposed to this proposal "at this stage" but was open to "reworking" it with social partners.

The measure is not final at this stage, far from it: it will be debated next week during a joint committee bringing together deputies and senators, responsible for finding a compromise on this text promised to 49.3 during its final passage in the National Assembly.

But the Upper House and its majority alliance of the right and the centre, a valuable support for Michel Barnier's government, wanted to make its mark on the inflammatory budget debates of the autumn, while the government is seeking 60 billion euros to cover the deficit.

"We are not making this proposal lightly," but "today, we need to find ways" to "finance the old age wall, the residential shift and the transformation of our nursing homes," insisted centrist senator Elisabeth Doineau.

"Attack on the working world"

The Senate text echoes the debate on the abolition of a public holiday - a long-standing Senate proposal - but proposes a more "flexible" system, which leaves it up to the social partners to decide on the terms of implementation (one day per year, "ten minutes per week", "two minutes per day"...).

In return for this "solidarity contribution through work" - the formula found by its creators - employers would see their solidarity contribution rate for autonomy increase from 0,3% to 0,6%.

The left was outraged by the proposal, denouncing for example "a real attack on the working world" according to the communist senator Cathy Apourceau-Poly, who replied with a touch of sarcasm by proposing a "dividend solidarity day" to make shareholders contribute. In vain.

Public Accounts Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said the reform should not be enacted in this way through an amendment. But "that it could be reworked with the social partners, I think that could be a good idea", because it would be "hypocritical to dismiss this debate out of hand", he added.

While Prime Minister Michel Barnier had been "very reserved" about the proposal, Economy Minister Antoine Armand considered it "interesting".

At the heart of the examination of the Social Security budget, the Senate also gave its approval to a government measure targeting apprentices: the latter will now be partially subject to two social contributions (CSG and CRDS), for an estimated gain of 360 million euros per year. The upper house, however, limited the system to contracts signed from 1 January 2025.