Larrouturou wants the four-day week, not pension reform

• The government's pension reform project is to be presented to the press and MPs this week.

  Several elements are already known, in particular the possibility of raising the legal retirement age to 64 or 65 years.

• For MEP Pierre Larrouturou, former candidate for the Popular Primary, this reform "has a huge problem of social justice" and does not take enough account of the average state of health of French people at this age.

• He proposes, figures and examples to the key, to generalize the week to four days, in order to create massive jobs.

  A solution which, according to him, "was almost unanimous in 1995 under Balladur".

Elisabeth Borne must present the pension reform on January 10 to the press, but the members of the government have been defending her proposals for several weeks already, so much so that the debate has largely occupied the end of the year celebrations.

At the heart of the project: the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 or 65 years, against 62 currently.

A reflection that goes in the wrong direction for Pierre Larrouturou, MEP and spokesperson for New Deal.

For

, the former PS and EELV details his vision of a better division of labor within society.

According to INSEE, 25% of the poorest French people have already died at age 65, which is also the life expectancy in good health in France.

Is the question of retirement age also a question of social justice?

There is a huge social justice problem with this reform.

Until now, the years between 60 or 62 and 65 were the best years of retirement.

We had free time, we were in good health and there was a decent income.

This is why the government is moving on this question of age, people are aware of it.

This morning, one of my collaborators was telling me about his aunt who retired at 64 and developed a degenerative brain disease from the age of 65.

It was not the INSEE curve that he had in mind!

Asking people to work longer is useless, the Retirement Orientation Council shows that the deficit is very small and will be filled in a few years so there is no urgency, and there are other avenues.

With this reform, what are we saying to these unemployed seniors?

They are told “it will be years of horror”.

What were their best years for traveling or seeing their grandchildren will become difficult years, they will have the choice between a reduced retirement or staying on the RSA.

Elisabeth Borne said that other solutions existed to achieve balance, that she did not want to increase the contribution period beyond 43 years, it was time for her to realize this.

The problem is that Emmanuel Macron is backtracking on one of his most interesting campaign promises, which is the minimum old age of 1,200 euros, so that at least we can live with dignity whatever our the course of life.

How to bring the pension system back into balance other than by extending the contribution period?

Our solutions are to massively create jobs, with two components: a real climate pact, which we are proposing with Jean Jouzel, to insulate homes, develop renewables, etc.

We would create 900,000 jobs.

The other proposal is to go to the four-day week.

In 1995, on the report by Boissonnat written at the request of Balladur, who is not really on the far left, there was a quasi-consensus to say that we had to reduce our working time by 20% on Next 20 years, with a long timetable for training in all sectors.

There are already 400 companies like Fleury Michon or Mamie Nova which have switched to the four-day week, without lowering wages with the idea of ​​creating jobs, and therefore of stopping paying unemployment contributions.

It is estimated that with a general movement,

1.6 million jobs could be created.

Just with these two ideas, we can create 2.5 million jobs, that is as many people who find a salary and who contribute to the pension funds.

Furthermore, studies show that France is one of the countries with the best hourly productivity in Europe.

Should we rethink our conception of working time?

People who say that we have to work more do not realize the metamorphosis of work over the past 30 years.

We are experiencing a revolution because to produce more, we need less work.

In the United States, the former minister of Bill Clinton, Robert Reich showed that in 30 years, we produce 80% more with 30% less work thanks to robots and education.

It's not the end of the work, we need caregivers, farmers, but there is a need for less work.

So either we leave 30% of people unemployed, or unemployment kills 15,000 people a year, or we are able to tell ourselves that we are going to share working time in a more pleasant way.

The best solution to the question of pensions is the four-day week without a pay cut.

In the report for Balladur in 1995,

everyone agreed that it was going in the historical direction, but in 2023, the full-time Frenchman still works 38.5 hours per week on average.

The most terrifying thing is that Emmanuel Macron knows all these numbers.

What would be the benefits of switching to the four-day week?

We are at a time when there is still mass unemployment, and at the same time sectors are struggling to recruit, such as in the restaurant industry, because people no longer want to finish at one o'clock in the morning five days a week.

At four days, it's easier.

It can also facilitate access to training.

In companies that have already moved to a four-day week, absenteeism has fallen.

In terms of quality of life, it's good for balance and health because it leaves time for sports or tourism, for example.

When we introduced paid holidays, even Léon Blum was afraid that workers would go to the seaside and never come back.

Today, the tourism sector is the largest employer.

And by freeing up time, we also free up the mind for new ideas.

At Pasquier's,

which increased to four days at the start of Jacques Chirac's mandate, the CEO, for example, had the idea of ​​pocket brioches while going cycling on his day off.

It was the most profitable idea in the company's history!

Other ways to reduce working time are being studied in Europe, such as paternal leave or menstrual leave...

There is no single solution.

But France is one of the most conservative countries.

In Spain, Pedro Sanchez has put the four-day week on the table and no one is screaming.

Opinion polls also show that the four-day week is the formula that tilts most employees, it is more concrete than 32 or 35 hours.

Parental leave is important, but we realized that there was a risk that companies would recruit fewer women, it's an equity issue.

Here too, the four-day week is an opportunity for men and women to better share tasks and engage in civic life.

Telecommuting has entered our lives massively and abruptly with the pandemic.

How to find the balance between working from your living room and working within the company, in particular by working four days?

There is a balance that is being created, the Covid has changed the relationship to work.

It remains a constituent of our identity, but it's not just work in life, people want a new balance and more time for themselves.

At the same time, we realized that we could be very productive from home, but we still need to see our colleagues physically.

You have to grope.

Among the companies that went to four days, at first it could be a bit of a mess, and quite quickly one or two days of mandatory attendance depending on the services were determined.

We are less involved in transport and we are implementing a whole host of ideas to improve collective work, such as pairs, more efficient meetings...

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• Company

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