Pensions: Berger (CFDT) postpones immediate discussion, "the priority is employment" - France 24

Paris (AFP)

The secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, postponed Thursday any immediate resumption of discussions on the pension reform, after a meeting with Prime Minister Jean Castex, stressing that "clearly, the priority today , that’s the job. "

"We have clearly told the Prime Minister that the question of pensions should not pollute the issue of recovery," Berger told reporters.

"This is not the subject of summer and autumn (...) The CFDT does not practice the empty chair, but if the government opens consultations on pensions this summer or in the fall, the CFDT will not really invest in it, "insisted Mr. Berger after an hour and a quarter of interview with Mr. Castex.

After having fostered sometimes stormy relations with Mr. Castex's predecessor, Edouard Philippe, Mr. Berger welcomed this contact "very frank, very open on the question of the method".

"Change of men, change of style", summed up Mr. Berger, referring however to Mr. Castex "to the acts".

"On the way of dialogue, it is extremely direct, it is interactive. He very clearly declared that he wanted to make social dialogue with the trade unions and employers' organizations, that he did not want to put us aside. the method, we are rather ready to have these exchanges, "continued Mr. Berger, referring to a possible multilateral meeting" in the course of next week, perhaps on July 17.

If the substance of the files has not really been addressed, "we felt the Prime Minister ready to shift widely" the implementation of the second part of the unemployment insurance reform, originally scheduled for September 1 and including unions ask for abandonment.

Mr. Berger also expressed the wish to be associated with the recovery plan currently in preparation and which should be unveiled at the end of the summer. "We reiterated that we wanted concertation (...) and we made proposals to it in terms of ecological transition and youth employment," he said.

Regarding the employment of young people, Mr. Berger said he was "not opposed to aid for businesses" provided that "there is a meaning to all of this and that it is not an overdeveloped windfall effect" .

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