The pension reform, recently adopted by the National Assembly thanks to the commitment of the government and validated by the Constitutional Council, is likely to change many things for the French. While it must be implemented from September 1, many changes are taking shape with some generations forced to work longer. For future retirees, the legal retirement age has in fact been shifted from 62 to 64, with an insurance period increased to 43 annuities. In this context, better consideration of certain periods could become effective.
During the validation of the pension reform, the Constitutional Council challenged several measures presented by the government. Thus, the senior index, a mandatory indicator for large companies on their employability rate for those over 55, has been revoked, as has the senior CDI. Created on an experimental basis, it should have facilitated the hiring of long-term job seekers aged over 60. Article 17 was also partly rejected, in particular the parties who expected individual follow-up for employees who had been exposed to certain occupational risk factors
At the same time, the Constitutional Council rejected a pension reform measure intended for civil servants. It thus made it possible to better take into account the periods spent as contract workers. Professions considered to be arduous such as nursing assistants or police officers will therefore have no exception and will also see their starting age raised. To benefit from an early departure, a period of exercise is still required: it is 17 years for the “active” category and 27 years for the “super active”. However, the counting of periods spent as contract workers does not enter into this calculation, which creates a stir.
In the text presented to the Constitutional Council, a mitigation measure had been provided for. Therefore, taking into account the periods exercised as contract workers in these job categories made it possible to count ten years of activity before tenure. This measure would have enabled a greater number of civil servants to take advantage of these early departures.
The Constitutional Council thus decided to censure this measure, considering that it had no immediate effect on the Social Security accounts. The recently adopted law therefore no longer contains this option for civil servants who have been on contract, which makes it impossible to take these periods into account.
Even if this measure was rejected by the Constitutional Council, it does not seem to have been definitively abandoned. The categories concerned have thus pointed out the injustice of this decision and the executive has chosen to communicate around this possibility. A possibility, which remains relevant if we are to believe the recent comments made by the cabinet of Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labour.
The government thus intends to think about a new proposal to implement the taking into account of these determined periods. According to the office of the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt, and as our colleagues from Capital report, “it is a legislative measure so it cannot be included in a decree”. The minister’s entourage nevertheless mentioned the possibility of examining it again during the study of the Social Security budget in Parliament from the coming autumn.
