"Three months to discuss": pension negotiations will kick off this Thursday

Following the "worrying" diagnosis by the Court of Auditors on the financial state of the pension system, unions and employers are entering the tough discussions on Thursday to outline a new future for the 2023 reform, with diametrically opposed solutions. Until the end of May at least, unions and employers will meet every week to try to amend the highly unpopular reform, whose flagship measure gradually shifts the legal retirement age from 62 to 64. If they reach a partial or total agreement, the text will be submitted to Parliament, the Prime Minister assured. They will begin on Thursday afternoon by debating the scope and timetable of the discussions, according to several union sources.

Matignon initially promised to let them debate "without taboos" , on condition that they did not harm the financial balance of the system. But the executive is now complicating the equation, calling on the negotiators to move "towards balance" . "They have three months to discuss" , recalled the Minister of Labor Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet this Tuesday on France Inter, before explaining that the "road map" was to "find a trajectory towards balance" . "There was time for expertise, that of the Court of Auditors, there will be time for social negotiations which open this Thursday, and there will be political time if there are subjects which must be submitted to Parliament" , lists the minister, who relies largely on the conclusions of the Court of Auditors report.

Because it paints a gloomy picture of the financial prospects of the system over a 20-year horizon, a "common basis" for the social partners. Despite the 2023 reform, the deficit in the pension system is expected to reach 6.6 billion euros in 2025, "stabilize" until 2030, then deteriorate rapidly, to around 15 billion euros in 2035 and 30 billion in 2045. The 2023 reform "will not be enough" to meet the "financial needs of the future" , assured the First President of the Court, Pierre Moscovici.

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Retirement age, contribution period, pension amount... The Court has calculated the financial effects of several possible "levers" , such as a possible freeze on the legal age at 63 or a move to 65... But without calculating the return to 62, the main demand of the unions. On Thursday, CGT leader Sophie Binet intends to "clarify" : "the object (...) is not the return to balance" but "the repeal" of the reform, she argued. This would cost "10 billion euros" by 2030, a figure that is "entirely sustainable" , according to her.

To finance, the CGT will propose to "achieve equal pay" between women and men, to use the financial income of companies, participation, profit-sharing... "If we restore a little justice" , there is "no problem of financing" , added François Hommeril (CFE-CGC). "It will be three complicated months" because "there are enormous expectations" , judged the number 1 of the CFDT Marylise Léon on France 3 on Sunday. She called for "taking our eyes out of Excel spreadsheets" and "looking at the real situation of individuals" , particularly those with "difficult" careers. The return to 62 years old, "that is the basis of the discussions" , she judged.

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The Medef rejects this idea outright. "Returning to the legal age would have very serious financial consequences" . "We will not be complicit in this fool's game" , warned its president Patrick Martin. The president of the CPME Amir Reza-Tofighi has put forward several avenues - which bristle the unions - such as the introduction of a dose of capitalization in the system, the indexation of the retirement age on life expectancy, or the possibility of limiting the annual revaluation of pensions. Agreeing will be all the more complex since the executive, which promised not to "interfere" , is multiplying declarations.

Repealing it would be "extremely costly and we absolutely cannot afford it," Economy Minister Éric Lombard said on Friday. Considering that the standard of living of retirees is "on average, higher" than that of working people, he said he was "rather" in favor of an increased contribution from them. Minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet (Labor) considered, among other things, that the introduction of a capitalization share "must be part of the discussions ." The ministers "are not in the room," Marylise Léon pointed out on Sunday. Will their statements carry weight? "Probably," she said. "Will that make us change course? (...) Certainly not."