Unions and employers at Matignon: a "useful" meeting, but outstanding questions

At the end of the meeting of approximately two hours with the representatives of the five representative trade union organizations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC) and the three employers' organizations (Medef, CPME, U2P), Elisabeth Borne welcomed "an ambitious, very dense social agenda".

Marylise Léon (CFDT) for her part mentioned "a useful meeting which allows to have some actions taken": "there will be the opening of a negotiation - or several negotiations it remains to be defined at the start of the school year -, on labor issues", including the employment of seniors.

"Today's meeting marks the appalling failure of the 100 days announced by the President of the Republic", decided for her part Sophie Binet (CGT). "What we have started today is a recovery that marks the start of the next four years," she said, recalling that "the inter-union will meet at the end of August to discuss the social situation and the modalities of social re-entry".

The last multilateral meeting at Matignon with the eight social partners dates back to March 2021. At the beginning of April, in the midst of a pension crisis, the unions had been received together by Ms. Borne, shortening the meeting after asking for the withdrawal of the reform.

Ms Borne introduced the meeting by congratulating the new general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, elected on June 21, and Patrick Martin, who will replace Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux at the head of the Medef on July 17.

"I wish to continue a rich and constructive work with you as with all the social partners", said Ms. Borne. She again promised a "faithful transposition" of the agreements they could find between them.

The meeting, which comes at a time when the prospect of a reshuffle is on people's minds, allows Ms. Borne to project herself at least until the fall, spanning the deadline of the "hundred days" decreed by Emmanuel Macron to relaunch her five-year term after the pension crisis.

Salaries on the menu

The participants did not start from a blank page, relying on the roadmap resulting from the discussions held in June by the unions and the employers.

Employment of seniors, career paths, prevention of professional wear and tear, support for professional retraining, universal time savings account, on which the social partners have agreed to negotiate, were on the menu for discussion.

The challenge was to know what place the government intends to take in these discussions and in particular whether it wants to fall within the framework of article L1 of the labor code which provides that the government should frame the negotiations with a guidance document. .

Sophie Binet (CGT) welcomed at the end from Ms. Borne "a thrill of autonomy in the face of employers by announcing a government framework on the employment of seniors and on professional wear", but "it remains timid ".

Another pressing subject, unemployment insurance, the rules of which expire on December 31, Matignon planning to send the framework document to the social partners "by the end of July".

But, as with previous negotiations on this topic, it is likely that the discussion between the social partners will be cut short, and that the government will ultimately regain control.

The unions have also been keen to put on the table the subjects on which dialogue is closed with employers, whether it is the revision of the ordinances reforming the 2017 labor code, the conditionality of public aid for businesses or wages.

"We discussed the number one issue for workers, which is the issue of purchasing power," said Marylise Léon.

"There is an issue at the start of the school year to work on the question of wages", she added, specifying that she had also renewed the request "to condition a certain number of exemptions from contributions for companies which do not play the wage bargaining game.