The event is unprecedented: a Minister of Justice heckled by lawyers. This Wednesday, the Keeper of the Seals, Nicole Belloubet, received a more than hostile reception in Caen (Calvados), where 70 lawyers threw their black dresses at her feet. Since Monday, the 70,000 lawyers in France have been on strike against the pension reform. A movement called to intensify: this Tuesday, the Paris bar, the largest with 30,000 lawyers, voted to extend the strike until January 14 inclusive, while the entrance gate to the courthouse of Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) was locked out by strikers on Wednesday.
The monthly general assembly of the National Bar Council (CNB), to be held on Friday, should lead to a new condemnation of the reform. And on Saturday, the SOS Retraites collective, formed on the initiative of lawyers and representing 16 professions (chartered accountants, doctors, nurses, etc.) and a million workers, calls for a joint demonstration in Paris.
Double contributions and a reduced pension
"We are rarely on strike, and that costs us, but we are in a state of total exasperation," asserts Me Christiane Féral-Schuhl, president of the CNB, representative body of the profession, who categorically refuses to see his regime disappear at profit from the universal scheme desired by the government.
Currently, lawyers contribute 14% for their retirement to the Caisse Nationale des Barreaux de France (CNBF), receiving a minimum pension of 1,450 euros monthly. Their cash register, in surplus, pays back 100 million euros per year for solidarity between the funds. In the universal scheme, their contribution rate would be doubled to 28%, and the minimum pension would fall to 1000 euros.
The profession criticizes a project which it considers dogmatic: "The reform, which claims to be egalitarian, creates inequalities, since one cannot confuse the statutes of the liberal professions and that of the employees: the liberal pays the entirety of his social contributions himself, and finances his work tool, ”pleads Me Féral-Schuhl.
Negotiations Stalled
While the profession voted four times in the CNB's general assembly against the reform, negotiations have stalled: since October, no meeting has taken place in the chancellery. Each camped on its positions, the government conditioning any compromise to the acceptance of the universal regime, the red line of the CNB. The secretary of state in charge of pension reform, Laurent Pietraszewski, declared in Le Parisien: “The pilots agreed to enter the universal framework, not the lawyers. The government has a clear mandate: to build a universal system. "
Certainly, the Keeper of the Seals, Nicole Belloubet, in a letter sent to the CNB on Monday, deplored a “profound misunderstanding” and mentioned specific proposals: a reduction in other contributions (health…) to compensate for the increase in pension contributions and the maintenance the minimum pension of 1450 euros from the reserves of the CNBF. However, the CNB considers these proposals to be unsustainable and likely to be canceled depending on the financial circumstances of Social Security.
The lawyers castigate the lack of support from the Keeper of the Seals, contrasting with the activism of the Minister of the Interior in favor of the police: "The only professions which are received and which obtain concessions are those which block", regrets Me Féral -Schuhl.
Refusal to plead results in postponement of trials
This Wednesday, all the bars had joined the strike movement voted on January 3 in various ways, each bar voting independently (again, autonomy is the key word): strike from two days to seven days, renewable, beaded ... Concretely, this translates into a cessation of designations and a refusal to plead, most trials are therefore postponed to a later date.
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But in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), Monday, the president of the assize court refused any dismissal and automatically appointed a lawyer, even threatening to "do without". An attitude condemned by Me Manuel Furet, Bâtonnier of Toulouse: “We expected more solidarity from certain magistrates, especially for the first day. The president's decision therefore stunned us, especially since the postponement presented no risk. "
The profession is counting on this showdown to succeed. The lawyers could be received by Nicole Belloubet early next week.