Pensions: legal retirement age, hardship, financing... What are the participants in the "conclave" tasked with reworking the reform, starting on Thursday, proposing?

Faced with "enormous expectations" , the general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, expects "three complicated months" . The unions and employers are meeting on Thursday, February 27, and will do so again every week until the end of May, in a "conclave" convened by the government , to try to amend the highly contested 2023 pension reform, which in particular gradually shifts the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years .

To formulate their proposals, they will rely on the Court of Auditors' report submitted on February 20, which estimates that the deficit in the pension system will reach nearly 15 billion euros in 2035 and 30 billion in 2045. In the event of "progress" , even "without a general agreement" between the social partners, the Prime Minister has committed to submitting a text to Parliament . Before the start of the negotiations, franceinfo summarizes the positions of the participants.

What the unions will defend

• Return to the increase in the legal retirement age to 64. For the CGT, the "object" of the consultation that is opening is "not the return to balance" of the system, but "the repeal" of the reform. The return to 62 will be "the basis of the discussions" , added Marylise Léon on Sunday on France 3. "Returning to 62 will remain our objective" , and "if we can scrape together a day, a month, a year, we will do it" , pleaded Laurent Escure, general secretary of the Unsa.

• Extend contributions to profit sharing and participation. The general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, claims that "repealing" the 2023 reform would cost "10 billion euros by 2030" . In its report , the Court of Auditors estimates that the positive effects of the reform on the financial balance of the pension system, "all schemes included" , will be in the order of "10 billion euros, by 2030" . To finance this repeal, the head of the trade union, Sophie Binet, proposed in January on France 2 to subject certain bonuses, such as profit sharing and participation, to contributions .

• Increase pension contributions. In addition, the CGT is also campaigning for a 0.5 point increase in pension contributions paid by employers. The CFTC wants to increase employer and employee pension contributions by 0.15 points. "For a salary of 2,500 euros net per month, this represents an additional cost of 15 euros for the employer and 5 euros for the employee," its vice-president, Pascale Coton, explained to Challenges .

• Better take into account arduousness. For its part, the CFDT intends to insist on "the recognition of arduous jobs". It calls for the reinstatement in the professional prevention account of four criteria of hardship removed by Emmanuel Macron in 2018: carrying heavy loads, difficult postures, mechanical vibrations and exposure to dangerous chemical agents. The CFE-CGC, the executives' union, wants psychosocial risks to be recognized as factors of hardship.

• Improve employment for seniors. The CFDT also intends to "obtain concrete things" on the employment of workers at the end of their careers . "We must work to improve employment for seniors" by creating " an employer contribution if it does not improve this employability" , proposes its assistant secretary, Yvan Ricordeau, to BFMTV . Faced with the reluctance of companies and the lack of training, seniors encounter many difficulties in obtaining a contract. According to the Minister Delegate for Labor, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, a report from the Economic Analysis Council, which will be published "at the beginning of March" , shows that France has experienced a "real progression" in the employment rate of "55-59 year-olds" , with levels "equivalent to Germany" . "On the other hand, the activity rate drops sharply afterwards" , she concedes.

• Addressing pay inequalities between women and men. Marylise Léon points out that these inequalities during professional life have "direct consequences on retirement" , since "the pension gap between women and men" is "38%". For its part, the CGT wants to create a temporary technical contribution for companies in favor of gender equality. According to the union , this measure would free up nearly 6 billion euros to finance pensions.

What employers' organizations will defend

• Maintain the legal age at 64 "at a minimum", "or even push it a little further", according to the Medef. The main employers' organization believes that "returning to the legal age would have very serious financial consequences" . In the columns of the Journal du dimanche , the president of Medef judges that it is necessary "at a minimum" to keep the retirement age provided for by the 2023 reform, or even "push it a little further" . To "ensure retirement pensions at the same level as today, and therefore preserve the standard of living of retirees, there are not 50 solutions" , according to Patrick Martin. "Either we increase the contributions of companies and employees" , which he excludes, "or we increase the contribution period" .

• Return to the legal retirement age, provided that it is indexed to life expectancy, for the CPME. The Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CPME) says it is open to negotiating with the unions on the legal retirement age. But on the condition that an "automatic" indexation system on life expectancy is established. "For a pay-as-you-go retirement model to last over time, we absolutely have to work more" because "we live longer" , argues its president, Amir Reza-Tofighi, with Les Echos .

• Introduce a capitalization component in the pension system. In the current model, pension funds collect contributions from the remuneration of active workers in order to pay retirees' pensions. T o "complete" this distribution system , which is based on intergenerational solidarity, the head of the CPME proposes adding " a capitalization pension" , which consists of saving for one's own retirement. On franceinfo, the Minister for Labor and Employment has shown herself open to this avenue , recalling that "15 million" active workers already use capitalization mechanisms. The Medef and the Union of Local Enterprises (U2P) are also in favor of this idea.

• Work one hour more per week. To finance this capitalization share, the CPME suggests increasing the weekly working time. "This additional hour of work would not be paid directly to the employee" and "the employer would in return top up his capitalization account for his retirement" , explains Amir Reza-Tofighi to Les Echos . " Another option would be to share the gains from this additional hour per week between retirement and salary" , he adds.

• Eliminate the tax deduction for retirees. The head of Medef is in favor of eliminating the 10% tax deduction for professional expenses that retirees benefit from, in the same way as working people. The disappearance of this advantage would lead to an increase in income tax for some retirees, and would mean that others, who are not taxable today, would become taxable. In January, Patrick Martin estimated on RMC that this measure could bring in "4.5 billion euros per year" .

• Review the financing of social protection. More generally, Patrick Martin believes in the JDD that it is necessary to "reinvent the financing" of all branches of social protection (illness, family, work accidents, retirement, autonomy), by transferring "a portion of the social contributions borne by companies and employees" to "taxation" . The head of Medef notably mentioned the "social VAT", which consists of reducing social contributions by increasing the value added tax . On BFMTV , he also mentioned an increase in the CSG (general social contribution) for retirees, who currently benefit from a lower rate than that applied to active workers. "The reduced CSG rate for retirees is 11 billion euros less per year" , according to him. The CPME also defends this last option.