French unions threaten protests over Hollande’s pension plans

Published Jun 11, 2013

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Ingrid Melander Paris

FRENCH labour unions stepped up the pressure on President François Hollande with threats of demonstrations over his pension reform plans yesterday, days before a panel tasked with advising his government is due to unveil proposals.

Hollande said the French must expect to work longer but instead of pushing for an outright raise of the statutory retirement age from 62, he suggested that the contributions period needed for a full pension might have to be extended.

Opinion polls suggest many people in France want Hollande to push ahead with economic reforms but pensions are a sensitive topic. The last reform, which was undertaken by Hollande’s predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2010 and raised the retirement age from 60 to 62, caused hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets in French cities and a blockade of oil refineries.

“If the government takes decisions that are of the same mould as that of the previous government, yes, there will be protests,” Force Ouvriere leader Jean-Claude Mailly told France 2 television.

Mailly, whose union is strong among public sector workers, rejected extending the period of contribution from the current 41.5 years, one of the options in the report due to be submitted to the government on Friday. He also opposed any change to the method of calculating public sector pensions.

Private pensions are based on an employee’s best 25 years of earnings while public sector pensions are determined by the last six months’ earnings before retirement. This is an arrangement intended to compensate public sector workers for lower earnings but which critics say is open to abuse.

“The pension issue will be the one that causes the biggest grief over the next six months and create a lot of tension with the government, that’s unavoidable,” Mailly said.

Eric Aubin, an executive member of the larger CGT union, said workers would have to mobilise to put pressure on the government before the proposed reform was turned into a draft law, probably in late September.

The conclusions of the panel will be submitted to the government on Friday. Discussions will start next week. – Reuters

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