According to the latest INSEE figures, consumer prices increased by 6.2% in October in one year. Given the inflationary context that is eating away at the purchasing power of the French – and affecting energy prices – the government could have opted for a general wage increase. But it is the dividends that the executive wants to address.
Pascal Canfin, MEP from the Renaissance presidential party, shared this Tuesday, November 29, in France Info his desire to force “companies that pay dividends to their shareholders, to also distribute them to their employees.” This “employee dividend” principle was also part of a campaign pledge by Emmanuel Macron. Added to this is a system of “super participation” for the benefit of the employees of the organizations that obtain “super dividends”.
These two proposals, validated by the party’s executive office, will have to be discussed during the consultations carried out with the social partners by the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. They will also be studied by a Renaissance working group in the Assembly and “refined” during a party convention scheduled for January and led by Olivier Dussopt and Bruno Le Maire.
Better distribution of value
It is about “introducing a reform that consists of extending a system of shared value to all employees in France”, explained Pascal Canfin. “Should a threshold be set? One employee? Ten employees? The same participation formula or another?” All these modalities will have to be discussed in the coming weeks according to Pascal Canfin, for whom “an equivalent result “through other mechanisms such as profit-sharing agreements or the exceptional purchasing power bonus).
Regarding the second proposal, the payment of the “super participation” would affect companies with at least 50 employees and if the dividends paid are higher than 20% of the average of the last five years.
The presidential party, explained Pascal Canfin, wanted to avoid “two pitfalls.” First, “a general indexation of wages”, with “companies that are beginning to weaken in part due to the increase in the price of energy.” Nor was the idea of a salary conference, mentioned by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin during a previous executive office, retained.
Super profits at the center of the political debate
Second “trap”: “do nothing” and trust “in the good will of the companies”, insisted Pascal Canfin, while the question of shared value and “super dividends” or “super profits” has been at the center of the political debate since spring elections.
The majority was notably divided on an amendment on the taxation of “super dividends” by the president of the MoDem deputies, Jean-Paul Mattei, approved in the Assembly against the advice of the government and not included by the latter in the text of the budget. subject to section 49.3.
Questioned on Tuesday, Jean-Paul Mattei maintained his proposal to tax more “super dividends.” “The focus” of Renaissance on the dividend and the participation of the employees is “interesting”, but “it is not the same debate” as the one that revolves around a “contribution” of the companies for “all the French”, has esteemed the leader of the deputies of the MoDem. .
Source: BFM TV
