Emmanuel Macron sent a letter to the main political forces in the country to summarize the twelve hours of the “Saint-Denis meetings”. The President of the Republic formalizes the holding of a “social conference”.
Following his meeting with the party leaders, Emmanuel Macron mentioned the next holding of a “social conference”. It should be held in October, according to the letter from the head of state written by him to summarize the 12 hours of discussions on August 30. Its central theme would be to debate the purchasing power of the French and particularly the lowest wages.
“In accordance with the rules of social dialogue, this social conference, which will be held in October 2023 between the social partners, will be opened by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Labor,” said Emmanuel Macron. The purpose of this event is to address the “question of branches where remuneration is lower than the minimum wage” and “the evolution of wages and incomes”.
Bruno Le Maire, guest of BFMTV on September 3, opposed the extension of this conference to all salaries. “If you decide to increase all salaries, there was a proposal which was to index salaries to inflation. That seems fair, but it will increase the cost of labor for companies who will say ‘ I can’t keep up, I don’t have the means, I’m laying off people, we’re going to lose jobs,” he argued. This position aligns with that of Medef and other employers’ organizations which would be “quite reserved, even suspicious, at the idea of ????this social conference” according to Franceinfo.
The Minister of the Economy welcomed the nature of this meeting made in October: “This social conference is particularly welcome because you still have two structural problems which must be resolved. The first problem is the number of branches in which the reference salary is below the minimum wage. This is unacceptable. The second question is that of low-wage traps or the minimum wage which results from reductions in the burden because the slope of reductions between the minimum wage and above the minimum wage is too steep. ” Bruno Le Maire would like to act on certain salary scales in many branches where certain employees, despite their seniority, do not have the feeling of progressing in the face of the increase in the minimum wage.
In order to prepare for this social conference, Olivier Dussopt must meet all the number one trade unions and employers in the country in bilateral meetings. Thus, Marylise Léon (CFDT), Cyril Chabanier (CFTC), François Asselin (CPME), Patrick Martin (Médef), Frédéric Souillot (FO), Sophie Binet (CGT and François Hommeril (CFE-CGC) are received this week by the Minister of Labour.
