Like any self-respecting negotiation between unions and employers, it starts with a "commedia dell'arte" between the players, giving the feeling of a dialogue of the deaf doomed to never succeed. The pension funding conference is no exception. This Tuesday, the first working group that met under the leadership of Jean-Jacques Marette, did not help much, according to several participants.
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Both have camped out their positions on the urgency of tackling the financial situation of the regime, each questioning the figures that should serve as a working basis, in particular that of the deficit of 12 billion in 2027. The CFDT believes that financial balance "is not the priority of the moment". The CGT that this deficit is "created from scratch" . FO disputes "the dramatization desired by the government" . Conversely, the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, reminds in an interview with Les Echos that "the figures prove that there is indeed a problem, contrary to what the CFDT says, and that the deficit continues to s' worsen, with 113 billion euros accumulated in 2030 ” .
"Compromise impossible"
Because a scenario without a slamming door is less exciting, the CGT announced Wednesday morning that it would no longer participate in the conference. Catherine Perret, number 2 of the confederation in charge of the pensions file, denounced on the microphone of Radio Classique "an impossible compromise" . She announced that the CGT planned to meet this Thursday with the intersyndicale (CGT, Force Ouvrière, FSU, Solidaires) in order to organize an alternative "real funding conference" , "serious and open, where we will propose a another model of society ” . "The CGT could have warned us of this decision at the meeting on Tuesday, even if we are not completely surprised, said a participant after this statement. They came with their counter-reform, containing the return of retirement at age 60. We knew it wouldn't hold… ” .
But because it is not a good scenario without imbroglio either, a press release from the same CGT indicated a few hours later that it was waiting to see if its proposals were accepted. In the "absence of response" , she will ask "next week, to her governing bodies, the question of the relevance of maintaining her presence" at the conference. The threat remains, but it is urgent to wait ... On the FO side, we also give ourselves some time. Reaffirming "his determination to preserve the current retirement system" , Yves Veyrier assures that "the conference is taking water: no matter how hard it will be, there will be shipwreck, and at that time we will get out of the boat" .
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"We regret the decision of the CGT, but the other trade unions and employers 'organizations are still around the negotiating table," noted government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye, after the Council of Ministers' report. "There is not only the CGT in the landscape [...] Those who remain have work" , also estimated on RMC the Secretary of State for pensions, Laurent Pietraszewski. And it starts again this Thursday with the meeting of the second group of the conference, responsible for reflecting on the governance of the future universal system, before a next meeting on funding on March 10.
In the coming weeks, things will not be simpler, as the positions of each other are distant. The alternative to the “pivotal age” at 64 years of age to balance the system financially - proposed by Édouard Philippe but which the CFDT does not want to hear about - on which the social partners must work, crystallizes the dissensions. The government rules out an increase in the cost of labor and a reduction in pensions. The unions, who denounce the shackles in which the government is locking up discussions, would see a solution consisting essentially in increasing contributions and drawing from the reserves of the pension system. Medef says that "at least 90% of the financial effort must relate to an age measure" . All have until the end of April to submit a common copy. "If the social partners agree on a cocktail of measures, I will take it," said Edouard Philippe. Otherwise, they will lose their hand.
