Screwing, nailing, drilling, carrying, sawing, assembling.
Stefan Slottensjö, a Swedish carpenter, has been repeating these same gestures for 48 years.
He is 65 years old.
The legal retirement age in Sweden.
But he will work for at least two more years: “Because I have no choice.
You have to work long enough to be able to get by financially.
If we retired at the planned age, the amount of the pension would not be enough”, breathes the man who started work at 17 years old.
In several European countries, the retirement age has already been pushed back.
This is one of the arguments of the French government.
In Sweden, the reform passed 20 years ago.
But with hindsight, even its main instigator, Karl Gustaf-Scherman, former head of Swedish social security, warns Emmanuel Macron and alerts to the imperfections of such a reform: “We have a new formula for calculating pensions.
People need to work longer, but we don't explain it to them.
And we do not help those who need it, ”he regrets in an interview delivered to BFMTV.
Work longer then.
“In Sweden, there is talk of pushing back the retirement age to 67 now.
We also mentioned 73 years and downright 75!
», laughs, not without bitterness, the one nicknamed Slottis.
"We who work in the construction industry cannot understand how we are supposed to have the strength to work for so long," he explains.
Like his colleagues, he has numb, tired limbs and joints.
Not to mention work accidents, which are unfortunately not uncommon in this profession.
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This is why he too wishes to warn the French president about the potential impoverishment of pensioners with such a reform in France: “Macron should really find out about Sweden, about the consequences that this reform has had on poor pensioners.
They are clearly invisibilities with this system.
A study by the Swedish pension fund carried out in 2019 shows that 72% of retired men and 92% of retired women suffered a drop in their pension and purchasing power after this reform.
“We should have campaigned more when this reform passed in Sweden.
It could have saved a lot of people, I won't say family, but a very bad retirement”, regrets Stefan, impatient to retire “to enjoy the rest of life”.