Medef said on Saturday satisfied and ready to participate "fully" in the pension funding conference to "find the right age measures", while the government is ready to remove the pivotal age of 64 from the project of reform.
"The Medef will fully engage in the financing conference in order to find the right age measures ensuring the financial balance of the pension system in the short, medium and long term", reacted the employers' organization in a press release, after sending a letter from Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to the social partners.
“I received the letter from Edouard Philippe on the financing of pensions. It clearly excludes rising labor costs as a financing solution. We will therefore participate in this conference in a spirit of responsibility ”, also reacted on Twitter the boss of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux.
I received the letter from @EPhilippePM on pension funding. It clearly excludes rising labor costs as a funding solution, so we will participate in this conference in a spirit of responsibility.
- G Roux de Bézieux (@GeoffroyRDB) January 11, 2020"It is time for this to stop"
In an interview with the Journal du dimanche , the boss of the bosses also calls for the end of the strikes: "It is time for that to stop". Regarding the economic consequences of the conflict, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux said: “Certainly, macroeconomically, it will be barely visible. But go talk to exhausted Ile-de-France employees and business leaders who lose 20, 30% of their turnover for the second year in a row… ”He asked when passing through Ile-de-France Mobilités to reimburse the transport contribution for Parisian companies, which he figures at around 330 million euros.
The Prime Minister announced that he was "willing to remove" the pivotal age of 64 in 2027 from the pension reform bill, while retaining the principle of a balanced age in the future system. He also announced the establishment of a funding conference, called for by the CFDT, to find the means to return the system to financial equilibrium in 2027.
In its press release, Medef "notes the position of the government which intends to condition pension reform to an imperative of balance by 2027. Imperative of balance that Medef has called for as the reference to an age of balance in the law ”. "He is also satisfied with the method chosen by the Prime Minister to conduct (the) conference on the balance and financing of pensions, both on the calendar set on the examination of the bill in Parliament, as on the presence of the State alongside the social partners ”.
Discrepancies on arduousness
Finally, Medef “fully subscribes to the conditions for restoring the balance set by the Prime Minister: no reduction in pensions or increase in the cost of work. "We are rather satisfied," reacted François Asselin, president of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME), interviewed by AFP.
“I don't see how you can dissociate negotiations on arduousness, long careers, etc., from the conference on financing. We consider it to be a whole, ”added François Asselin, however:“ We ask that everything be included in this negotiation ”. Conversely, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux believes that arduousness "is an issue that must be approached with a different calendar from that of pensions, because it is complex".
The Union of local businesses (U2P), which represents craftsmen, traders and liberal professions, for its part welcomed that the Prime Minister's letter "creates the conditions so that concertation can begin between the social partners on balance and funding of pensions ”and said he wanted to participate“ constructively ”in the conference. In a press release, its president Alain Griset also asked the unions to "suspend strikes and in particular blockades".
- Edouard Philippe
- Medef
- Strike
- Social
- Pension reform
- Society