Employment of seniors: negotiations with employers are slipping, according to the unions

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: MARKUS SCHOLZ / DPA / DPA PICTURE-ALLIANCE 5:55 p.m., March 1, 2024

Discussions on senior employment and career paths remained at a standstill on Friday, with employers refusing to accept key demands from the unions, we learned from their negotiators.

“The negotiation is still hanging on, but by a thread”, indicated Yvan Ricordeau (CFDT), at the end of a “session which was very complicated”, in particular because of the repeated rejection of the Universal Time Savings Account (Cetu) by Medef and CPME.

“We propose something, they explain to us that we could do without it”

“This day has clearly buried Cetu,” said the representative of the CFE-CGC executives union Jean-François Foucard.

The CFDT recalled that the system it is proposing, which would guarantee all employees the right to save leave and transfer it from one company to another, is part of the guidance document given by the government to the social partners. .

For the first union to agree to negotiate a “life at work pact” without Cetu, its management will have to modify the mandate given to its negotiators, explained Yvan Ricordeau.

Medef, for its part, insisted on its idea of ​​senior permanent contracts, which would make it possible to hire older unemployed people with a salary differential compared to their previous position which would be covered by unemployment insurance, the unions reported.

For FO, Michel Beaugas said he did not want “unemployment insurance to pay the employed senior”.

“Today, it will have been a session for nothing,” he judged.

>> READ ALSO - 

Employment of seniors: the harsh reality of long-term unemployment

The CFTC left the session before the end: “Every time we propose something, they (the employers) explain to us that we could do without it,” lamented its negotiator Éric Courpotin.

“We are not closing the door,” he added.

The CGT insisted on its desire to continue to negotiate in order to “do the maximum to obtain new rights for employees”, through its negotiator Sandrine Mourey.

She added that the negotiations are taking place in a "context which does not allow negotiations in a calm manner", the executive having repeatedly expressed its desire to further tighten the conditions of compensation for the unemployed.

The leaders of the union confederations and employers' organizations met by videoconference on Friday afternoon to discuss the blocking points in the discussions, we learned from the negotiators.

Three meetings are still scheduled with the aim of concluding at the end of March.