While the pension reform has just been adopted and must be implemented from September 1, 2023, the executive wants to shift into high gear by proposing a new bill. After weeks of discussions and significant social mobilization, Emmanuel Macron’s government intends to put the priorities of the French people back at the heart of the matter and make the controversy forget. The sharing of value therefore stands out as a major issue, which is not without risk for the executive. What is this new law planned by the government?
The executive won a battle, waged against the French, the unions and the opposition, by succeeding in having the pension reform adopted and promulgated, despite the controversy. As of September 1, the legal retirement age will therefore be gradually raised from 62 to 64, while the insurance period will now be 43 years. Decisions that are not without consequence on the morale of the French, worried about their future, while inflation continues to gallop and precariousness awaits.
In this tense context and while the French still hope for the success of the Liot group in the National Assembly, which wishes to propose, in June, a bill to repeal the pension reform, the executive has other projects in mind. . This Wednesday, May 24, the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt, must present the government bill on the sharing of value to the Council of Ministers. This text must therefore provide answers to the current problems of the French. Purchasing power, in full inflation, and income inequalities are, therefore, foreseen as essential subjects to be debated.
As part of this bill, the government therefore hopes to bring the French people together and erase as much as possible the image left by the adoption of the pension reform. The text must therefore consist of a sealed agreement between employers and unions to generalize the sharing of profits made by companies with employees. It intends to set up specific mechanisms such as profit-sharing, participation and value-sharing bonuses (PPV) for all companies with more than 11 employees.
Through it, the development of employee shareholding, as well as the sustainability of the Macron bonus will also be implemented. All companies with more than 50 employees will have to negotiate the distribution of any exceptional profit at the same time. Possibilities which will normally be announced by Olivier Dussopt during the Council of Ministers.
Apparently, this new bill could bring some peace of mind to a government that has been battered since the start of this second five-year term. However, the unions are cautious about the measures announced by the executive. The CGT thus did not sign the agreement with the other social partners, considering, as our colleagues from the Huffington Post report, “that it does not deal with the question of wages”.
Within Parliament, the rebellious have, for their part, in mind to use this breach to evoke their own proposals. MP LFI Aurélie Trouvou thus explained that in her eyes, “the government text is a sword in the water”. In question ? A sharing of value deemed incomplete, deprived of the questioning of the share paid to bosses or shareholders, as well as profit-sharing and participation schemes normally substituted “for salary increases”. It remains to be seen how the text will be received during a first presentation which promises to be under tension.
