Less than a week after taking office, the new Prime Minister Jean Castex is looking into the social agenda of the government. He began to receive, on July 9, in Matignon the social partners, who, given the social crisis, all put forward the question of "employment" rather than that of pensions, which they do not want to hear speak immediately. 

Thursday, from the early hours of the morning until the evening, before a resumption Friday afternoon, unions and employers parade in Matignon in the presence of the new Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne. They wish to take the pulse of the intentions of the new Prime Minister.

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Opening the ball, the general secretary of the CFDT Laurent Berger welcomed a contact "very frank, very open on the question of the method".

"Change of men, change of style," added Laurent Berger who had been the key interlocutor of Edouard Philippe during the pension reform, whose jolts had punctuated the winter, before it was suspended by the epidemic.

"Very direct and very frank", "almost rugby player", abounded the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, who slipped that he had already attended Jean Castex in the framework of his former functions of interministerial delegate at the JO-2024 .

"We will judge by acts", warns Philippe Martinez

"He was attentive to our words but trust is earned, we will judge the actions," tempered Philippe Martinez (CGT). 

On the merits, Laurent Berger, whose union is the only one to be in favor of the principle of the universal pension plan with points, repeated Thursday that this file was "not the subject of summer and autumn". 

"We have clearly said to the Prime Minister that the question of pensions should not pollute the question of recovery", he insisted, stressing that "the priority today is jobs". 

Yves Veyrier, secretary general of Force Ouvrière (FO), went in the same direction, explaining that the unions and French employers have all said: "This is really not the time". "We have to go into pause mode," added François Asselin, president of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME). 

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There is "no question" of having "age measures", such as extending the contribution period, to remedy the question of funding, added Yves Veyrier, who fears that this option is detention. 

"Let's discuss at the start of the school year, but with up-to-date figures" concerning the deficit of the current system, insisted for his part Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux.

For his part, Jean Castex had already expressed his determination to settle this matter "in the short term", in reverse of the social partners. "Refusing to talk about pensions when the balance of accounts, and therefore the safeguard of the current system is compromised, would be irresponsible," he argued on Wednesday.

"It would be irresponsible not to deal with questions of employment and low wages in the period," replied Philippe Martinez on Thursday. 

Increase in the pension system deficit 

Jean Castex had also Wednesday started to explain his method: the reform of the system, and therefore of the special regimes, will be separated "from the measures that need to be taken to safeguard the current system", of a financial nature. According to a provisional estimate by the Pensions Guidance Council (COR), the deficit in the pension system should approach the record level of 30 billion euros this year, very far from the 4 billion expected before the crisis.

In addition to pensions and employment, other major projects are fallow, such as the unemployment insurance reform, the second part of which was to come into force on September 1.

Jean Castex reaffirmed to the unions his desire to postpone it, while they are demanding the abandonment of this reform which provides for a new calculation of the allowance for those, often precarious, who alternate short contracts and unemployment.

The unions also want the executive to go back on the tightening of the opening of rights (six months of work on the last 24 since November 1 against four of 28 before) and their reloading.

The announcements on unemployment insurance should take place "next week", according to Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux who requests the postponement of another measure, the bonus malus, intended to penalize companies that abuse short contracts.

After his declaration of general policy on July 15, Jean Castex will once again receive the social partners on July 17, this time multilateral, to define the priorities to be tackled, the method and the timetable. 

With AFP

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