PENSION REFORM. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne drew 49.3 on Thursday March 16, canceling the vote on reform in the National Assembly. Several motions of censure should follow. All the explanations.
[Updated March 16, 2023 at 4:28 p.m.] Turnaround in the National Assembly! Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has decided to engage the responsibility of her government before the deputies, this Thursday, March 16, 2023. Indeed, no vote will take place at the Palais Bourbon. The government drew the famous article 49.3 of the Constitution to force through the pension reform, judging that the risk was too great of not benefiting from the expected majority. This Thursday morning, the Senate had yet adopted the pension reform by 193 votes in favor, against 114 opponents, a first success expected for the government, which will ultimately not follow.
Now MPs have 24 hours to table a motion of no confidence. The latter will be studied in a few days, Monday, March 20, 2023 and could overthrow the government in place if adopted. “We are obviously going to table a motion of censure” declared Marine Le Pen at the end of the day’s session. A motion of no confidence is also already “ready” according to the National Secretary of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel.
The pension reform should indeed be integrated into a future amending Social Security financing bill (PLFRSS), as announced by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Thursday March 16 in the midst of an extremely excited National Assembly. The number 2 of the government then announced the use of the famous 49.3 to try to pass the text of the pension reform without having to resort to a vote of the National Assembly. To try to see more clearly, here are the 9 points to remember about the pension reform project:
The government wants to implement this new 2023 pension reform to ensure the survival of the pay-as-you-go pension system dear to France. The executive is based first of all on the increase in life expectancy. We live longer, so we can work a few extra years. The number of retirees is growing faster than the number of working people. And this number is expected to grow steadily in the years to come. 16.8 million retirees in 2020, and up to 23 million in 2070. A big acceleration should be felt around 2040 with the retirement of the baby boom generations. Problem, it is the assets who contribute to pay the pensions of retirees. Hence the wish for the government to “rebalance” this pension system which requires greater funding.
The pension reform project has followed a very specific legislative path since the official announcement of January 10, 2023. In all likelihood, the text will be integrated into a future Social Security amending financing bill (PLFRSS). Here are the key dates to remember:
After the passage from 60 years to 62 years in 2010 (Woerth reform), Emmanuel Macron wishes to pass to 64 years with an acceleration of the duration of contribution, which will reach 43 years and 172 quarters. The 1968 generation will be the first to have to wait 64 years to benefit from a full pension. Are you concerned? Here is the new legal starting age, based on your year of birth:
The info-retraite.fr platform already allows you to carry out a simulation to try to find out the new retirement age if the reform were to come into force. You should provide some information such as your age, as well as the number of quarters contributed before the age of 20 (to find out if you are one of the beneficiaries of the long career scheme).
“We are going to take better account of long careers, by maintaining a certain number of devices, such as the system of early departures”, explained the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, Monday January 23 during the report of the Council of Ministers. With its pension reform, the government intends to make the long career system more “adapted”, as Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne indicated in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche published on Saturday February 4. The Minister also announced, during this interview, that the long career scheme will be extended to people who started working between the ages of 20 and 21, and that they “will thus be able to leave at 63”.
In the long career scheme of the current pension system, a person who started working before the age of 20 can retire two years in advance, while a person who entered working life before the age of 16 can benefit from an early retirement. anticipated by four years. With the pension reform, which sets the legal retirement age at 64, people who started work between the ages of 18 and 20 will be able to retire two years earlier than the new legal retirement age of 62. People who started working at age 17 will be able to claim retirement at age 61, etc… In detail, if you have validated at least five quarters before age 20 (with 43 years of contribution and 172 quarters), it will be possible to retire at:
The project is also accompanied by an impact study revealing certain inequalities between women and men. According to the report, on average, a woman will have to work 7 months longer with the reform, compared to 5 additional months for men. And up to 9 months longer for a woman born in 1972, four months longer than a man. A return to the postponement of the legal age would amount to “giving up the financial balance of the system” declared the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. On Wednesday, January 25, during questions to the government from the Senate, the minister defended the text tooth and nail: “the reform that we are carrying out provides protections for women, you have trouble hearing it. The fact of upgrading the minimum The basic contributory scheme makes it possible to target the most vulnerable. This is our priority.”
For more than three years, the abolition of special diets has been in the government’s small papers. Faced with the rumble of contributors to special plans, the latter has reviewed its copy. It plans to prohibit access to special schemes for new hires in the trades concerned. In other words, the old ones will keep their special regime, but the new ones will no longer have access to it. The limit is as follows: to remain attached to his special scheme, the employee must be less than 17 years from retirement, in 2020. This is the famous “grandfather clause”. Please note that the increase in the legal retirement age should start a little later for these special schemes. The Woerth reform of 2010, which had raised the legal age of departure from 60 to 62, will not be fully effective until 2024. Companies employing these employees could therefore be forced to establish a period of convergence with the other diets.
Monday, January 30, the disappearance of special regimes was recorded in the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. Those of the RATP, the electricity and gas industries and the Banque de France will therefore cease if the reform comes into force. Paris Opera dancers, dockers, and the Comédie Française will not be impacted. This special diet should not move one iota. It should be noted that in the public service, the advantageous method of calculating the retirement pension, which consists in basing it on the last six months of the career (often the best paid) against the 25 best years for the private sector, should be kept. .
Monday, January 23, during the Report of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Public Service Stanislas Guérini affirmed that the pension reform measures will be applied “symmetrically” to civil servants. “We have decided to keep the fundamentals of the system for civil servants”. The executive is considering the integration of progressive retirement schemes, the portability of rights associated with active categories, taking into account the end of careers of active categories or the integration of years spent as a contract worker. Finally, “a prevention and professional wear and tear fund dedicated to public service caregivers” will be created, as announced by the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, Monday January 23 during the same press briefing. The amount of this fund will reach 1 billion euros.
Hardship at work is one of the government’s priorities in this 2023 pension reform. In this logic, access to the C2P (professional prevention account) should be extended to new employees, more than 60,000 more per year. , the government said on Tuesday. This system makes it possible to accumulate points so as to leave earlier in retirement, according to six criteria of arduousness: night work, work in alternating successive shifts, repetitive work, activities in a hyperbaric environment (under water, nuclear reactor containment), extreme temperatures or even noise.
The carrying of heavy loads, painful postures and mechanical vibrations, three criteria of hardship at work which had been abandoned in 2017, should not be reinstated as the unions would have liked. Nevertheless, the employees concerned will be offered an “enhanced medical follow-up” from mid-career. On medical advice, these same employees may obtain an adjustment of their position and/or working time. They will also be able to benefit from enhanced access to retraining. In the most critical cases, an early departure from the age of 62 may finally be offered to them.
