PENSION REFORM. The Prime Minister must unveil the outlines of the pension reform on Tuesday.
[Mise à jour du mardi 10 janvier 2023 à 08h53] The contours of the pension reform will finally be unveiled. After long weeks of discussions with the social partners and representatives of political groups, the Prime Minister is due to present her project this Tuesday, January 10, from 5.30 p.m. after questions to the government in the National Assembly. But what does the pension reform contain? The executive has already announced its intention to push back the legal retirement age, now set at 62. The government’s initial ambition is to gradually push back to reach 65 by 2031. To achieve this, this age had to be shifted by 4 months each year starting next summer. “65 years old is not a totem”, however, indicated Elisabeth Borne at the microphone of France Info last week. Other avenues are being considered, such as raising the legal age to 64, conditional on a gradual extension of the contribution period. Clearly, in this case, you would have to have worked 43 years to fully receive your retirement. According to information from the economic daily The echoes, raising the legal age to 64 would ultimately be preferred.
If this option is confirmed, and it is put in place from the fall of 2023, the French born in 1968 would be the first to have to wait 64 years to retire, advance The echoes. What about people who entered working life early? A modification of the long career system should be announced. Currently, those who started working before the age of 20 can claim their rights at age 60 (58 if they started before age 16), provided they have contributed enough and have accumulated a certain number of quarters at the beginning of career, recalls the economic daily. According to the latter, the executive is considering a new level at 18 years. Those who have contributed five quarters before the age of 18 will be able to leave up to four years before the legal age, ie 60 years old.
In addition to the issue of the legal retirement age, the executive has already announced its intention to raise the at least retirement pension for a full career at 85% of minimum wage. It remains to be seen whether this measure will only concern new retirees. Regarding the issue of hardship, thehas creation of a professional wear and tear prevention fund for trades identified as difficult was mentioned. The three hardship criteria abandoned in 2017 (carrying heavy loads, painful postures and mechanical vibrations) should be reinstated, subject to a medical examination. To promote the employment of seniorsthe executive plans to implement artwork an index on the employment of seniors in companies with more than 50 employees. Finally, he wants to allow a better access to phased retirement and the combination of employment and retirement.
If the pension reform has not yet been officially unveiled, it is already the subject of strong opposition. The unions refuse any postponement of the legal retirement age. They have already promised to mobilize if this measure were to be confirmed. “The French are more reasonable than certain trade union and political leaders. No one wants a blockage”, reacted Olivier Dussopt in an interview with the daily Le Parisien, adding that “we must not take people for fools. The French understand exactly what we should do”.
The pension reform will then be presented to the Council of Ministers on January 23, then examined atNational Assembly at the beginning of February. As a reminder, the executive wants this project to be implemented from the end of summer 2023. On the form, the government has not yet decided on the method. LHowever, the executive would already be leaning towards adopting the text by including it in a bill of funding Corrective Social Security (PLFSSR). The advantage of this solution is to be able to have recourse to article 49.3 of the Constitution (which allows a law to be passed without a vote of Parliament).
Who will be affected by the pension reform?
The pension reform does not concern current retirees. The latter retired at age 62 as currently stipulated by law. If the government retains the track of a postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 years, the generation born in 1968 should be the first concerned.
Will the pension reform put an end to special schemes?
This fall, the executive and the social partners have worked on the issue of special regimes. As a reminder, France currently has 37 pension schemes (general scheme, supplements, special schemes). Among them, there are 15 special diets. Of the 16.9 million retirees in France, about 4.2 million benefit from these special features, according to the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES). These include farmers, soldiers, civil servants, the self-employed, the liberal professions… Depending on the special scheme, affiliates enjoy certain advantages in respect of the arduous nature of their job. In particular, they can retire earlier, contribute for less time than workers in the general scheme, and receive higher retirement pensions.
From 2019, the government had announced its intention to abolish the special schemes in order to achieve the creation of a universal point-based pension system, where each euro contributed gives access to the same rights for everyone, regardless of the profession practiced. This statement had caused an outcry among contributors to special schemes. From now on the executive plans to introduce the “grandfather clause”. In other words, it is close, from 2025, access to special pension schemes for new hires entering the professions concerned until there. Thus, the oldest will keep the special scheme for which they have been contributing for years, while new entrants will not be entitled to it. Only employees who, in 2020, were less than 17 years from retirement will escape the universal scheme and will remain attached to their special scheme.
Insured persons will not be affiliated to the new universal scheme and will retain their benefits linked to the special scheme if they were born before:
- On January 1, 1975, for most special diets.
- On January 1, 1977, for Port of Strasbourg employees
- On January 1, 1980, for employees of SNCF, RATP, IEG, Banque de France, choristers and certain personnel of the Paris Opera, Comédie Française and State workers.
- On January 1, 1982, for miners and drillers.
On the other hand, the executive has undertaken, through the voice of the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, not to touch certain special regimes, such as that of sailors, dockers and dancers of the Paris Opera.
Towards a better consideration of hardship?
Cashiers, industrial or construction workers, cleaners, home helpers, caretakers, nurses… In the private sector as in the public service, many professions are subject to difficult working conditions. In his reform, the government says it wants to take more into account the hardship at work in order to allow professionals to retire before the legal age.
With the C2P (professional prevention account) the law currently allows employees to accumulate points according to their exposure to 6 hardship criteria: night work, alternating shifts, hyperbaric environment (underwater), repetitive movements or exposure to noise and extreme temperatures (cold or hot). If they are subject to one or more of these hardship criteria employees get points and can spend them on training, going part-time, or retiring earlier.
It is possible to accumulate up to 8 points in a year, and 10 are necessary to advance your retirement by one quarter. Nevertheless, it is impossible to accumulate more than 100 points in a career, especially since the first 20 must necessarily be dedicated to training. A maximum of 80 points can therefore be used to leave earlier, which represents only 8 quarters, i.e. two years of retirement gained. To date, only 9,596 people have been able to use their C2P to anticipate their retirement, according to data provided by the Ministry of Labor. The system therefore benefits very few workers.
In order to expand the effectiveness of C2P, the government wants to add three other occupational risk criteria: awkward postures, carrying heavy loads and mechanical vibrations.