Retirement at 64: the thorny issue of end-of-career planning

Among the professions most affected by "ergonomic criteria", including heavy loads, awkward postures or mechanical vibrations, we find cashiers, maintenance workers, construction workers, process industry workers and handling workers, according to a study by Dares (Ministry of Labor) published last year.

In 2017, four out of ten hardship criteria had been removed by the government: jobs involving manual handling, difficult postures, as well as exposure to mechanical vibrations and dangerous chemical agents. Six remain today: work in a hyperbaric environment (high pressure), exposure to extreme temperatures, noise, night work, alternating shifts, repetitive work.

The employment of senior citizens is currently once again the subject of discussion between social partners after a negotiation which failed in the spring, but the issues of arduousness and professional wear and tear are not the subject of dedicated chapters.

A draft agreement submitted this week by employers to the unions proposes that the employment of seniors becomes a mandatory negotiation topic every four years in the branches and every three years in companies with more than 300 employees.

These negotiations will have to focus in particular on "the recruitment of experienced employees", "retention in employment and end-of-career arrangements", as well as "the transmission of knowledge and skills".

The draft employers' agreement also provides for access to gradual retirement from the age of 60, as well as an "experience recognition" contract to facilitate the hiring of unemployed seniors who have much more difficulty finding a job than their younger counterparts.

The challenge for seniors is "to keep them in employment and stop companies from having only one objective when an employee reaches 50, which is to look at the terms and conditions under which they will be able to make them leave as quickly as possible", declared recently the general secretary of the CFDT Marylise Léon.

"We need to legislate to prevent companies from getting rid of seniors," said her CGT counterpart Sophie Binet.

In 2022, the employment rate of 60-64 year-olds in France was only 36,2%, 12,3 points lower than the European average. The government's objective is to reach 65% by 2030.

But the mechanical effect of the increase in the age may not be fully effective: the move from 60 to 62 years in 2010 resulted in "an increase in employment for only half of the people concerned", France Stratégie noted in a report in 2018.