Elisabeth Borne received the social partners in Matignon on Wednesday, with the desire to give a “new impetus” to social dialogue and lay the foundations for the new “life at work pact” that Emmanuel Macron wants, after the painful crisis of the pensions, a meeting considered “useful” in union ranks.
At the end of the approximately two-hour meeting with the representatives of the five representative union organizations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC) and the three employer organizations (Medef, CPME, U2P), Elisabeth Borne greeted “an agenda ambitious and very dense social network”.
Marylise Léon (CFDT), for her part, evoked “a useful meeting that allows some measures to be taken”: “in fact, there will be the opening of a negotiation, or several negotiations, it remains to be defined at the beginning of the school year”. -, in labor matters”, including the employment of the elderly.
“Take the control”
“Today’s meeting marks the atrocious failure of the 100 days announced by the President of the Republic”, Sophie Binet (CGT) decided for her part. “What we have started today is a recovery that marks the beginning of the next four years,” she said, recalling that “the inter-union will meet at the end of August to discuss the social situation and the modalities of social reinsertion.” “.
The last multilateral meeting in Matignon with the eight social partners dates back to March 2021. At the beginning of April, in the midst of the pension crisis, the unions had been received together by Elisabeth Borne, shortening the meeting after calling for the withdrawal of the reform .
Elisabeth Borne opened the meeting by congratulating the new CFDT general secretary, Marylise Léon, elected on June 21, and Patrick Martin, who will replace Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux as head of Medef on July 17. “I look forward to continuing rich and constructive work with you as with all the social partners,” said Elisabeth Borne. She again promised a “faithful transposition” of the agreements they could find between them. The meeting, which comes at a time when the prospect of a reorganization is on people’s minds, allows Elisabeth Borne to project herself at least until autumn, covering the period of the “hundred days” decreed by Emmanuel Macron to relaunch her five year program. term after the pension crisis.
Senior employment, universal time savings account…
The participants did not start with a blank page, relying on the roadmap resulting from discussions held in June between unions and employers. The employment of the elderly, career paths, the prevention of professional burnout, support for professional retraining, the universal time savings account, which the social partners have agreed to negotiate, have been on the menu of debate.
The challenge was to know what place the government intends to take in these discussions and in particular if it wants to enter into the framework of article L1 of the Labor Code that establishes that the government must frame the negotiations with a guiding document. Sophie Binet (CGT) welcomed at the end of Elisabeth Borne “an emotion of autonomy in the face of employers by announcing a government framework on the employment of the elderly and on professional clothing”, but “remains shy”.
Salaries on the menu
Another pressing issue, unemployment insurance, whose rules expire on December 31, Matignon plans to send the framework document to the social partners “at the end of July.” But, as with previous negotiations on this issue, the discussion between the social partners is likely to break down and the government will eventually regain control.
The unions have also been willing to put on the table the issues on which the dialogue with the employers is closed, be it the review of the ordinances to reform the Labor Code of 2017, the conditionality of public aid to companies or wages. “We discussed the number one issue for workers, which is the issue of purchasing power,” said Marylise Léon.
“There is an issue at the beginning of the course to work on the issue of salaries,” he added, and specified that he had also renewed the request “to condition a certain number of exemptions from contributions for companies that do not play wages.” bargaining game
Source: BFM TV
