Paris (AFP)

CFDT number one, Laurent Berger, suggests in an interview published in La Croix on Tuesday an increase in contributions in order to avoid the age of equilibrium that the government wishes to introduce in 2022 as part of its pension reform.

"The age of balance is totally unfair, because it penalizes people who started working early," said the secretary general of the first French union, whose troops will be on the street Tuesday everywhere in France to demand in particular the withdrawal of this budget measure.

According to the government's plan, this pivotal age must reach 64 in 2027 in order to encourage, thanks to a bonus-malus device, the extension of contributions and thus guarantee the balance of accounts.

For Laurent Berger, "there are other short-term solutions, an increase in contributions, for example. Why is it taboo to talk about it, when it seems so obvious to ask those who have fulfilled their contract to work longer? "

"Why not temporarily adjust the system thanks to the reserves of the different (pension) plans?", Also notes the union official.

More generally, Laurent Berger made "the following proposal to the government: entrust to the future joint governance of the system (universal pension that the executive plans to set up, editor's note) the responsibility of making proposals within a year return to balance in the short, medium and long term ".

"Without, of course, imposing the outcome of the negotiation before it takes place," he warns.

Asked Tuesday morning on CNews about this suggestion of an increase in pension contributions, the Secretary of State responsible for the public service, Olivier Dussopt, was cautious.

"It is not a surprise to say that this government did not take as the trademark neither the increase of the contributions, nor the increase of the taxes", he noted, arguing that "our DNA it is rather the reduction in compulsory levies. "

But "the debate can open," he assured, recalling that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was going to receive trade union and employer organizations on Wednesday in bilateral then Thursday in multilateral.

"By the end of the week, he will offer them to continue to exchange," he continued, adding: "It counts a lot because it means that the dialogue is not only not broken, that it is resumed and, if there is dialogue, in my opinion there is a solution ".

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