MPs vote to create a permanent senior contract for those over 60

In response to the underemployment of seniors in France, MPs approved measures on Thursday aimed at facilitating the hiring of those over 60, including the creation of a permanent senior contract . This text was adopted during the examination of a bill transposing several agreements reached between unions and employers.

It was approved by 57 votes to nine, with only La France Insoumise rejecting the text. The rest of the left voted overwhelmingly in favor, with a few abstentions. The National Rally also voted in favor.

"This text embodies the success of social democracy. A pillar of republican dialogue, it allows for progress accepted by all," said Labor Minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet in a statement.

Senior employment in France "is one of our weak points," the minister acknowledged at the opening of the debates, recalling an employment rate for those over 60 of 38%, compared to 61% in Germany and 70% in Sweden. This underemployment constitutes "an injustice, a human waste, and an economic waste that we can no longer accept or allow," the minister declared.

At the podium, the left-wing deputies, but also from the National Rally, did not fail to recall "the forced passage" of the 2023 pension reform , in the words of the deputy Sophie Taillé-Polian (ecologist and social group).

The elected official criticized the government's "contradictory policy" of raising the retirement age to 64 "without really" being "concerned about the precarious situation of senior citizens excluded from the labor market."

The bill, already adopted by the Senate, provides in particular for the creation of a senior permanent contract called the "experience enhancement contract" (CVE), on an experimental basis for the next five years following the promulgation of the law.

Designed to facilitate the hiring of job seekers aged at least 60, or even as young as 57 in the event of a sectoral agreement, this contract will give employers flexibility, who will be able to decide on retirement when the employee is entitled to a full rate, and will benefit from exemptions on retirement compensation. Currently, employers can only compulsorily retire employees at the age of 70.

La France Insoumise will not participate "in the re-enchantment of the forced labor of our elders," criticized MP Ségolène Amiot, believing that this contract is smoke and mirrors that hide a "new gift to the bosses, a new exemption from contributions." The measure was adopted without amendment.