CDI seniors, long careers, premium for certain mothers… Under the influence of the senatorial right, the text of the government was amended on several points.
“We will vote for the reform, but a modified reform, a reform that we will amend”, had warned the boss of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, at the start of the debates in the upper house. With the parliamentarians of his group, the Vendéen worked to move from words to deeds by changing the contours of the text, finally adopted on Saturday March 11 in the Senate.
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From now on, the senators will try to harmonize their version of the bill with that of the deputies during a joint joint committee (CMP) organized on Wednesday March 15. With the risk, therefore, that certain measures voted by the upper house do not appear in the final text. Franceinfo takes stock of the changes made by the Senate to the pension reform project.
The “long careers” system has been set up
By voting on article 7 after a week of debate, the Senate adopted the flagship measure of the government bill, which provides for the gradual decline in the legal age of departure from 62 to 64 years. The acceleration of the Touraine reform, which provides for the increase in the number of annuities required to 43, has also been recorded. Nothing surprising in this vote: the right, which has a majority in the Senate, has approved for years the raising of the retirement age.
The senators also validated the extension of the long career system of the pension reform to those who started working between 20 and 21 years old, for an early departure at 63 years old. The Prime Minister said she was in favor of this measure from the beginning of February, in response to a request from LR deputies.
On the other hand, the parliamentarians rejected amendments aimed at further extending the long career system, in particular to demand 43 years of maximum contribution for those who started working early. This is what the deputy LR Aurélien Pradié had more or less asked for in February.
A “senior CDI” has been created
This is a provision that the government supported much less: the majority on the right voted for an amendment creating a new type of “end of career” CDI to promote the recruitment of employees aged at least 60. The employer would not be required to keep the employee until he is 70 years old, “cutoff age which today represents a brake on the hiring of seniors”according to the reporters.
With this new contract, “the employer will be exempt from family contributions, in order to compensate for the cost of a senior employee who, given his experience, can claim higher remuneration than a young worker”specifies this amendment proposed by Les Républicains.
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On another subject related to the employment of seniors, the Senate approved the creation of an index in companies, but only for those with more than 300 employees. The government relied, according to Gabriel Attal, on the “wisdom” senators, who removed the obligation of this “senior index” for companies with more than 50 employees. This threshold which was first added by the National Assembly last month, before this provision was finally rejected.
If it is validated by a joint joint committee, then during a final vote in the Senate and the National Assembly, the seniors index will therefore be compulsory from November 2023 for companies with more than 1,000 employees, and for those of more than 300 employees from July 2024. But this measure could also be censored by the Constitutional Council.
A surcharge for certain women has been introduced
It represented a “Red line” for Bruno Retailleau. The boss of the LR senators wanted a provision in favor of certain mothers to be adopted during the examination at the Luxembourg Palace. The senators voted on a proposal for a pension “surcharge” of up to 5% for women who exceed the 43 required annuities, under the effect of the maternity and child-rearing quarters. “It will affect 30% of women in a generation” either “130,000 people” per year, said the rapporteur for the old age branch René-Paul Savary (LR). The measure, valued at 300 million euros, will “in the right direction”according to the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt.
A study has been launched on the capitalization
The senators also recorded the launch of a study on the addition of a dose of collective capitalization in the pay-as-you-go system. The capitalization system provides that employees and employers invest their contributions in investment funds, shares or even bonds. At the time of retirement, the employee then receives a pension linked to the past performance of these investments. With their amendment, the senators ask that the report be submitted by the government to Parliament before October, but the government is not in favor of introducing a dose of capitalization into the current system.