2023-10-14 10:54:00
“Work no longer pays”: Elisabeth Borne opens a social conference on low wages on Monday, in a context strained by high inflation and differences with the social partners on other issues. Six union organizations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC, CFE-CGC, and Unsa) and six employers (Medef, U2P, CPME, Fnsea, Fesac and Udes) must meet at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese) in Paris , with a plenary session in the morning, workshops in the afternoon and a closing plenary.
The Solidaires union will not come, deeming the proposals presented upstream by the government “insufficient”. Elisabeth Borne received unions and employers’ organizations in turn this week. “The Prime Minister told us that there would be announcements, we will take her at her word,” hopes the head of the first union, the CFDT, Marylise Léon.
Before the big rally, unions and youth organizations demonstrated on Friday “against austerity and for an increase in salaries, pensions and gender equality”. But the ranks were much smaller than when they protested against pension reform six months ago.
Since this crisis, the social partners agreed, in July, on a “social agenda” of tripartite negotiations – with the government – on the employment of seniors, career paths, or arduousness.
On Monday, they meet in a “social conference” format to try to initiate discussions among themselves, under the aegis of the government. An event validated by Emmanuel Macron during his twelve-hour meeting at the end of August with the leaders of political parties in Saint-Denis.
Disagreement
Several themes are on the menu: “conventional minimums, classifications and career paths”; “part-time and short contracts”; “exemptions from contributions, activity bonuses and reduction in remuneration”, according to Matignon. The theme of gender equality was added at the last minute, under pressure from several unions.
“We do not want to enter into a negotiation brandishing a hammer,” government spokesperson Olivier Véran underlined on Wednesday, keen to give the hand to the social partners to “increase low wages” or develop “a agenda on improving the quality of life at work”. Nearly one employee in ten has a low salary, defined as such by the OECD when it is less than two-thirds of the median salary.
The question of their revaluation arises all the more as prices soar in food, energy or fuel, further reducing the purchasing power, at the top of the French people’s concerns.
The downside is that the conference is being held against a backdrop of deep disagreement between the social partners and the government over the private supplementary pension schemes (Agirc-Arrco) and unemployment insurance (Unedic). The State wants to drain them to fill the deficit in the general pension system or to supplement France Travail, the new public employment service. These transfers are a “red line” for CGT boss Sophie Binet, and augur “the end of the honeymoon” with the government, according to Medef.
“Compaction”
The government seems to rule out the idea of indexing salaries to inflation, as demanded by FO and the CGT, reported Sophie Binet after her meeting with Elisabeth Borne. In France, only the minimum wage is indexed to price increases. The executive also shows “a lot of caution”, according to the CFTC, on the main demand of the unions to “condition” the tax exemptions granted to companies on the increase in wages. The unions believe that these measures act as a “low-wage trap” since the closer the salaries are to the minimum wage, the greater the exemptions.
But Medef is hostile to it. Its new president Patrick Martin even said he was ready to challenge it legally. “Sanctioning a company that is up to date with its salaries, on the grounds that its sector is not, is legally impossible,” he notes.
In addition, as the minimum wage increases faster (with inflation) than the rest of wages, certain minimums in professional sectors are caught up, generating, according to the unions, a “slump” in wages. In other words, even with several years of seniority, the employee remains at the minimum wage. Around 60 professional branches currently have minimums below the minimum wage, instead of 145 in May, according to the Ministry of Labor.
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