Pensions: Still no agreement for the conclave which plans a final meeting on Monday

The pension "conclave," which began three and a half months ago, failed to reach an agreement by Monday evening, the scheduled deadline. A new, final meeting has been announced for next Monday.

At the end of a long, tense day, and as it was almost midnight, negotiators from the five participating organizations (three unions and two employers' organizations) came to explain that the situation was still deadlocked, and that a final round of negotiations was planned for Monday. However, it is not yet known whether everyone will be around the table.

So this is a last-chance operation, but the chance of reaching an agreement is slim. It's hard to see how the unions and employers could reach an agreement on Monday when the talks went around in circles all day Tuesday .

Several sticking points remain. First, on arduous work. The unions have written off the idea of ​​a return to universal retirement at 62 or even 63, but they are pushing to allow employees who have worked in arduous jobs to retire earlier, such as construction workers or cashiers.

To this, the Medef says yes, but only for those in poor health, and for the others, no early retirement, but rights to retraining.

The second sticking point is the savings to address the pension fund deficit. Everyone agrees that pensioners should contribute, but this would be insufficient to achieve balance, and the employers' camp refuses to allow companies to dig into their pockets.

A final compromise text will be proposed at the start of the session, a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, with proposals that will be difficult, if not impossible, for both sides to accept. The game is therefore expected to be very close, but no one wants to take the blame for the failure of the talks.

If the social partners fail to reach an agreement by Monday, the 2023 Borne reform will continue to apply. This seems the most likely outcome at this stage, as the chances of reaching an agreement appear slim. The head of the French employers' federation (Medef) was questioned Wednesday morning about his participation in Monday's meeting and said he was "very reserved."