The employers’ organizations and the unions, with the exception of the CGT, have agreed on an agenda for future negotiations, which for the moment leaves aside conflicting issues such as unemployment insurance and wages, as we learned this Tuesday from trade union sources. The CGT will participate in some of these negotiations but refused to validate this agenda because “essential points” do not appear there, such as the rules for compensation for the unemployed and wages, explained its general secretary, Sophie Binet.
Consensus to negotiate on Agirc-Arrco
This agenda is made up of three blocks. The first includes the issues -some minor- on which employers and unions agree to negotiate. It includes in particular the new four-year management agreement for Agirc-Arrco, the supplementary pension plan for private sector employees, as well as a negotiation on “the valorization of union careers”.
A second block includes several important issues that unions and employers say they are willing to negotiate on, but differ on method. These are issues not addressed by the pension reform: employment of the elderly, professional career, prevention of professional burnout (difficulty) and support for job retraining, as well as the creation of a universal time savings account. The unions want the Government to participate in these negotiations while the employers resist, for fear that the executive will impose measures that it does not want, such as the creation of an index of seniors.
Disagreements over a negotiation on unemployment insurance
Finally, the text lists a third block of “non-arbitrated” issues on which employers and unions show their disagreements on the interest of the negotiation, firstly unemployment insurance. In principle, the Government must send in the coming weeks “a framework letter” to the social partners so that they renegotiate the compensation rules for the unemployed that expire at the end of the year. But the employers do not see the point of a negotiation because they are satisfied with the current rules, the result of the two reforms imposed by the executive since 2021. Rules that the unions, on the contrary, want to question. In the absence of an agreement at the end of the negotiation, it is the government that will decide on future rules.
Another subject left aside, “salaries and the evolution of the classification tables”. Entrepreneurs consider it to be a company or branch issue, and not an interprofessional one. In principle, the trade unions and employers’ organizations must be received in Matignon in July to finalize this agenda with the government.
Source: BFM TV
