After the words place the actions. 48 hours from the end of the 100-day period that the Head of State had set to give impetus to the country, the social partners are received at Matignon this Wednesday, July 12. If the Prime Minister had already received the unions bilaterally in mid-May to open a new chapter after the conflicting pension file, this new meeting, multilaterally and with employers, aims to lead to concrete results. “We want answers to the questions asked in mid-May”, immediately underlines Marylise Léon, the new general secretary of the CFDT. “We want something concrete,” agrees Boris Plazi, member of the CGT office. “We always go there with the same state of mind of claiming”, notes this Wednesday on RFI Frédéric Souillot, secretary general of FO.
The day after the sequence of retirements, the government indeed promised that it would put work at the heart of the discussion and that on these issues, it did not intend to move forward without the social partners. But the subjects are not lacking. Representatives of employers and workers agreed last week on a busy social agenda, even if no surprises emerged. Among other things, we find the question of the employment of seniors, the universal time savings account as well as follow-up projects for several past agreements.
The social partners hope to see more clearly on the files which will remain the exclusive preserve of employers and unions – the so-called “autonomous” agenda – and those subject to a framework letter from the government. The latter thus wonder about the room for maneuver for negotiation left by the executive. “We want a real social democracy,” warns Marylise Léon. The question arises in particular for unemployment insurance, for which a new agreement must be signed before the end of 2023. In order to be able to start discussions, the joint bodies have been calling for this framework letter for a long time. The executive says he is aware that time is running out. The document should also leave “at the end of July”, we are assured at Matignon.
Still, on other subjects, unions and employers have failed to agree. Starting with the question of wages. Employers do not want to hear about any interprofessional obligation. On the contrary, they consider that the decision must be made within each company, according to its capacities, even at branch level. On the employee representative side, it is believed that this type of negotiation does not always allow progress to be made quickly enough. As proof, according to them, the number of branches which have one or more minima under the SMIC. “The employers do not want to hear anything, so we want the intervention of the police”, supports Boris Plazi, of the CGT. At the CFDT, we still hope to see “an incentive to negotiate” emerge, underlines the number one. And to cite, among the avenues proposed, the conditionality of public aid.
Unsurprisingly, the points of agreement remain numerous between the unions, but it is out of the question to speak of an inter-union. “We have discussions but we carry the subjects separately”, points out Boris Plazi. Same story on the reform side: “We did not prepare the meeting together,” confirms Marylise Léon. Only Frédéric Souillot mentions the inter-union with a meeting scheduled “August 25 to discuss how we see things”. “We cannot turn the page on pension reform,” he insists on Wednesday.
In addition to these many subjects, this meeting will also be the opportunity to see several new faces gathered together for the first time within the social landscape. Thus the number one of the CGT, Sophie Binet, will be accompanied by Marylise Léon, who took the reins of the CFDT on June 21 and Patrick Martin, who was elected on July 6 at the head of the Medef. The latter will however be accompanied by his predecessor Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, who will participate in his last multilateral. The end of an era and the beginning of a new one.