Negotiations on pension reform: what Bayrou is asking of the social partners

He tasked them with "restoring the financial balance" of the pension system for "the year 2030". In a letter sent to the social partners this Wednesday, the Prime Minister outlines what the negotiations on pensions should be , a preamble to "developments", "because this subject continues to generate debate", justifies François Bayrou in this letter.

This letter is addressed to the social partners on the eve of the launch of three months of negotiations to "improve" the very unpopular reform of 2023. In mid-January, before a report from the Court of Auditors on the subject , François Bayrou had only asked the negotiators not to "degrade" the financial balance of the system, whose deficit is expected to reach 6.6 billion euros in 2025.

The search for balance over a five-year period should complicate the task of the negotiators, even if in his letter the Prime Minister "confirms that the joint delegation will be able to discuss all the parameters of our pension system, without totems or taboos" and that the social partners alone will decide "on the agenda of the work".

The unions want to repeal the 2023 reform by reversing the increase in the retirement age to 64, and to take better account of the hardship and broken careers that mainly affect women, while employers' organizations defend the need for the reform.

The head of government also indicated to the negotiators that the moderator of the debates Jean-Jacques Marette would regularly keep "the parliamentarians informed of the progress" of the work, during "meetings with the representatives of the political groups in the Assembly and the Senate".

If the social partners reach an agreement, even partial, François Bayrou promised in mid-January to present their text to Parliament to amend the reform.

The Prime Minister finally confirms in his letter that "questions specific to public sector pension schemes will be dealt with outside your conference, in another format", in accordance with the "unanimous wish" of the social partners.