Barthélémy Philippe / Photo credit: Eric PIERMONT / POOL / AFP 14:02 pm, May 21, 2023

This week, Elisabeth Borne will meet the Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (CPME), as well as the Medef. The issue of inflation should be raised, as should some of the unions' demands, such as the repeal of the unemployment insurance reform, which the bosses oppose.

Elisabeth Borne will be on deck on Monday to talk about climate. But it will not escape the social agenda either. The Prime Minister will receive the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME), but also the Medef. On inflation, for example, the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, believes that companies have really played the game since the average salary of private sector employees has increased in recent months.

"Relatively few social conflicts in companies for wages"

"Plus 5.8%, we are almost at inflation, we can do better, but at some point, we can only give what we have," said Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. "Margins are also being squeezed. We continue to negotiate. But I just notice that there is quite little social conflict in companies over wages."

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Employers are also standing up against the unions' other demands, the conditional conditions of public aid to companies or the repeal of the reform of unemployment insurance which tightens the conditions of compensation. "Unemployment is at an all-time low, all sectors are recruiting. I think we must leave the system as it is and not for reasons of political display, question a system that has just been modified, "says the president of Medef.

And at the end of these consultations, the government wants to organize a multilateral meeting with all the social partners in order to move forward on the post-retirement social agenda. They could take place before the end of May.