Employment negotiations for seniors: the very last lap

“The employees of this country have all taken two years of extra work,” recalled FO negotiator Michel Beaugas during an interruption mid-session, scheduled to last at least until 15:00 p.m.

“We must arrange the end of careers so that it is bearable for employees,” he added.

“The employers in their draft agreement offer us multiple ways to better dismiss seniors,” said CGT number one Sophie Binet in the morning on RTL.

At the end of training in a new profession, if the employee is not reassigned internally to his original company, his employment contract is in fact "deemed to have been terminated by mutual agreement", without compensation. departure.

“For all union organizations, there must be maintenance of the employment contract,” explained CGT negotiator Sandrine Mourey on Monday evening.

The unions are also demanding a right to progressive retirement from the age of 60, while the system is currently only accessible two years before the legal retirement age, which is gradually raised to 64 years.

Concerning career paths, interviews throughout the career and professional retraining, "we are already seeing setbacks for employees", particularly on "the pace of professional interviews" which are more spaced out than today, detailed Sandrine Mourey .

Mandatory negotiation

For unemployed people aged 60, or from 57 in the event of a sector agreement, the draft agreement creates an “experience enhancement contract”. Initially called "CDI seniors", this contract can be terminated by the employer as soon as the employee has reached the legal retirement age and can leave with a full pension.

Another red line for unions, who see the risk that employees will be dismissed before being rehired under this new type of contract, even if the dismissed employee cannot be rehired by the last employer for six months.

Faced with these setbacks for the unions, progress was however made on Monday: compulsory negotiation on the employment and working conditions of seniors will open every three years in companies with 300 or more employees, and all four years at branch level. The previous version of the draft agreement made the employment of seniors a subject of social dialogue. From now on the subject will be the subject of a separate negotiation.

But "we have no specification of the negotiation and we have nothing on companies with less than 300 employees", regretted Monday evening the CFDT negotiator, Yvan Ricordeau.

He still saw in this commitment a first opening on the management side.

If the social partners reach an agreement, the government is committed to translating this text into law, the stated aim of which is to increase the employment rate of seniors, which is lower in France than in most European countries. .

After this negotiation, the unions signatories to last November's unemployment insurance agreement (CFDT, FO and CFTC) and the three employers' organizations must meet on Wednesday at Unédic to sign an amendment on compensation for seniors.

This involves raising the age limits by two years to benefit from longer compensation, paving the way for the validation of the joint agreement by the government.

But this convention should quickly become obsolete since Gabriel Attal has already announced a new reform of unemployment insurance "in 2024", despite the hostility of part of his majority and that of the unions.