Pensions: CPME suggests targeting improvement on professional wear and tear

The leader was speaking at the end of an hour and a half meeting with Prime Minister François Bayrou, who is currently meeting with all the social partners and asking them, Mr. Asselin summarized to AFP, "to study ways to improve" the reform. "We have confirmed that we are up for it," he said.

"We are aware of the budgetary constraints and know that we cannot make promises to the French that we can never keep," noted the president of the CPME.

"If we wanted to go back to the retirement age, the question of financing would immediately arise, especially since we already know that the current reform will not have a balance point from 2030," he warned.

Mr. Asselin, however, believed that a discussion on jobs that generate professional wear and tear "could be successful between social partners."

"We have a very small financial margin for maneuver," he estimated, with the surpluses linked to the Investment Fund for the Prevention of Professional Wear and Tear (FIPU): "For these professions, if we anticipate things and deal with the subject in mid-career, there are things to do, and we know how to do them."

Mr. Asselin also indicated to Mr. Bayrou that the CPME was ready, in the future draft law on financing social security (PLFSS), to "accept the final decision on the reduction of social security contributions, even if it could be improved, because it protects the fabric of SMEs."

The Barnier government had initially planned to remove four billion in employer contribution reductions on the lowest salaries in its PLFSS censored at the beginning of December, before limiting these cuts to 1,6 billion, sparing salaries below 2,25 times the minimum wage, which constitute the vast majority of those paid in SMEs.

Mr. Asselin considered the interview "friendly". He felt that the Prime Minister had a "Coué method" side to him, where he says that he has to play every possible chance".

But "there is what needs to be done for France to get back on its feet, and what the Prime Minister will be able to do in the current political context," he said.