- France: 42 special regimes to one: this is the pension reform in Macron
The special regimes. The crux of the conflict. Because Emmanuel Macron's plans are to end them and merge all the systems into one. A French peculiarity that does not exist in any other country. They are the elite of the working class: they retire earlier and receive better pensions.
In all countries of the world there is some particular retirement regime, usually of police or military. In France there are 42. They account for 6% of the 17.2 million pensioners, that is, 1.1 million. But they belong to strategic companies and with powerful unions. Fruit of years and years of agreements accumulate advantages.
The most obvious is to retire before. Paris public transport workers (RATP) do so at 55.7 years; those of the French Renfe, (SNCF) at 56.9; those of the former public gas and electricity company, at 57.7. On the other hand, in the civil service it goes to retirement at 61.3 years and in the general regime, at 63.
Within each regime there are their differences. For example, railroad workers with a sedentary job go home at 57; the others, at 52. This same internal difference also occurs in the RATP.
Unions justify this difference in the specific penalty of their work . A trade unionist defended on television that working in the subsoil, as in the subway, decreases life expectancy.
This argument is answered by the Court of Auditors in a report last July: "Early retirements are not justified by significant differences in life expectancy at age 60, at which age 89.9% of employees of the RATP are already retired. "
The other big difference is the calculation of the pension . In the French general regime it is done on the 25 best years of the race; in the public service and in the RATP, over the last six months of working life.
According to data published by Le Parisien , this determines a wide range of pensions. In the general regime, between 1,260 and 1,410 euros are received, while in the public service 2,206 euros are charged and in the RATP, 3,705 euros. Always in gross and monthly terms. Le Monde answers that calculation and has published the actual amounts charged: 2,160 euros for all pensioners of the special regimes and 2,357 for those of the RATP. What comes to be almost double the pension of the general scheme.
The trade unionists argue that these better conditions of retirement of the special regime is an acquired right and that it is part of the contract of each worker. And that comes to compensate for the specific hardship of the job. That was evident in the 40s when steam train drivers worked on open platforms in inclement weather throwing coal shovels. It is harder to defend today when high-speed trains are driven with a joystick from air-conditioned cabins.
But the worst thing for defenders of special regimes is that they are deficient. And there is the Government adding fuel to the fire. Example from the lips of Agnes Buzyn , Minister of Health: "The French have to realize that these unions defend extremely deficient special regimes paid for our taxes and that their claims are very corporatist."
Agnès Verdier Molinié, director of the liberal think tank Ifrap riveted the nail into a tribune in Le Figaro : "Why do we have to go hand in hand to give 3,000 million a year to the SNCF and more than 700 to the RATP ?. of union hypocrisy is that they have already agreed to delay the retirement age to 63 years ... but only for private sector workers. "
The Court of Auditors in its report clarified that half of the hole in the accounts of the special regimes (2,800 million) is the product of "unfavorable demography. Thus the SNCF box has 143,000 contributing assets but 261,000 beneficiaries. A ratio of 0.55 active per pensioner.
The opposite case is that of the lawyers' box. They have 4.2 assets for each pensioner. The Togas Guild is suspicious of the government, which intends to merge the reserve funds of the complementary regimes of private sector wage earners who treasure 70.8 million euros.
Together with these large groups, among the 42 special regimes there are others, a product of history. Each one with their quotes (many are paid more) and their benefits. In the Paris Opera box there are 1,900 contributors for 1,800 pensioners. It is understood: the dancers retire at 40; the choristers, between 50 and 57 and musicians, at 60.
It is understood that there are insurmountable regimes such as that of miners, which has 4,000 contributors for 312,140 pensioners! But the bargain of the bargains is the regime of the Bank of France. If the retirement age is close to that of the common one, the parents of three children can retire with 15 years worked. And the pension is 75% of the last six payrolls.
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