Paris (AFP)
CFDT Secretary General Laurent Berger has asked the government to "get out of the woods" to "clear up its position on the arduousness, the careers of women, special diets", during an interview on RTL Friday.
"The government must give meaning to the reform it wants to bring, saying + we want a fair reform, which will reduce the inequalities suffered by women, precarious careers, those with difficult jobs, those who have worked a little in the private and a little public and are penalized at the time of retirement +, basically, it says the elements of progress that must be contained in this reform, "said Mr Verger.
"If he does not say it, he suggests that this reform would be a punishment and if it is a punishment, no one will accept it," he adds.
Asked about the disagreements between High Commissioner Jean-Paul Delevoye and Emmanuel Macron on the so-called "grandfather clause", which would reserve reform only to new entrants into the labor market, Mr. Berger replied: " I especially think that it reveals that they are not rigged ".
For him, "the reform applies to everyone". "There may be professional specificities, for example this is the case for railway workers," he said. "All those who have a promise at a given moment, especially on the issue of the age of departure, it is their contract of departure, it is necessary enough transition periods" but "it can not be for all the world".
Indeed, "if we just introduce new entrants (in the universal system) that means that women, they must still accept for forty years to have an average pension of 30% lower than that of men, "he said.
"What I mean by this is that the current system has profound inequalities and what we want in this reform is to reduce these inequalities, it is to fight them," he added to justify his reservations about the "grandfather clause".
"Today, the government, by its procrastination, suggests that this reform, they would be afraid because it would be punitive," lamented Laurent Berger.
© 2019 AFP