Failure of negotiations on the employment of seniors, the unemployment insurance agreement compromised

The final text submitted for signature by the employers' organizations does not create "any new rights for employees", regretted CFDT negotiator Yvan Ricordeau at the end of the talks, an observation shared by the four other unions, CGT, FO , CFE-CGC and CFTC.

“There is no new right, there is less destruction (of rights) than expected, but above all major shortcomings,” also pointed out FO negotiator Michel Beaugas, who reserved the position of his organization.

Several unions highlighted the fact that an employer opening on a right to progressive retirement could have changed the situation, but both Medef and the government argued that the measure was too expensive.

“The employers did not want this negotiation from the start, they tried to turn it around” to better evacuate it, estimated Mr. Ricordeau. The CFDT's support for the text was decisive in reaching a compromise.

“We negotiated in good faith on both sides, ultimately we were very limited by the government's framing rule which prohibited us from any financial room for maneuver,” declared Medef President Patrick Martin on RMC on Wednesday.

“Basically, we agreed with the government on the fact that we should not take over with one hand the financial gains generated by the pension reform, so this framing letter made sense in a certain way” , he continued.

FO and the CFDT will meet their governing bodies on Wednesday and Thursday to formally decide whether or not to validate the agreement, but the negative statements from their negotiators leave little doubt that their decision will be negative.

The fifth and final version of the text, which included very few substantive changes compared to the last two previous versions, was submitted by the employers to the unions late on Tuesday evening, without satisfying them.

Hands to the government

This failure gives control back to the government over the future, which had undertaken in the event of an agreement to transcribe the text into law, the stated aim of which was to increase the employment rate of seniors, which is lower in France. than in most European countries.

As expected, the Universal Time Savings Account (Cetu), promoted by the CFDT, but rejected by Medef and CPME, was also absent from the final version of the text.

Supposed to allow all workers to convert days of leave or rest not taken into remuneration or to retire early, it should however be the subject of a separate negotiation next week - possibly Tuesday - on the initiative of the Union of Local Businesses (U2P), the third employers' organization which represents artisans, liberal professions and traders.

The meeting scheduled for Wednesday at Unédic in the event of agreement, to sign an amendment on compensation for seniors in the presence of the unions signatories to the unemployment insurance agreement last November (CFDT, FO and CFTC) and the three organizations employers, is “postponed to a later date pending the final decision of the various parties”, according to the representative of Medef, Hubert Mongon.

This signature was to pave the way for the validation of the joint agreement by the government.

“This meeting had to raise the age limits to draw the conclusions of the pension reform,” underlined Michel Picon, president of the U2P.

However, "if we do not raise the age limits for the senior sector, the government will not validate the convention (unemployment insurance of November 2023, editor's note) that we negotiated (...). All that will fall through,” he regretted on BFM Business.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has already announced his desire to further tighten the conditions of compensation for the unemployed to, he justifies, further encourage them to return to work.

The social partners should therefore receive a new framework letter to negotiate a new agreement, with savings to be made for unemployment insurance, while the government seeks to find savings in order to reduce the public deficit.