Pensions: Borne and Darmanin in delicate mine clearance operation in the North

The Minister of the Interior was playing at home on Thursday. Gérald Darmanin visited with the Prime Minister the site of the family cosmetics company Sarbec Cosmetics, in Neuville-en-Ferrain (North), next to his town of Tourcoing. Tackled by the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, for his “lack of empathy”, after the broadcast last week on France 2, Elisabeth Borne participated with her Minister of the Interior in an exchange on pension reform with site employees, partly drawn by lot.

The head of government wanted to be “listening”, explain, again and again, the “why” of the reform. “Preserve our pay-as-you-go scheme, that is why we are gradually asking to work longer”, repeats the one who also insisted on certain devices: long careers, arduous work, prevention funds, increase in the minimum contributory … Before take the questions, she insists, in front of a fairly largely concerned public: “Four out of ten French people will not have to work until they are 64 years old. »

The employment of seniors worries executives

For an hour, these are questions about senior employment and on the departure age of those who started working early and who return most often. The first, rather in the mouths of executives. The seconds, in those of the workers. With regard to seniors, the need for “incentives rather than sanctions” is often expressed by unit managers. Elisabeth Borne explains what it is planned to do so that it is no longer more advantageous for a company to separate from its seniors rather than keep them.

She even makes the audience smile when she wants to reassure them about their productivity and competitiveness: “I am more and more convinced, and it is perhaps because of my advancing age, that it is beneficial for a company to have senior citizens. And to talk about training, transparency with the senior index, but also to recognize that the government “has not exhausted the subject. »

Borne’s new tracks

“It’s a job that will not stop with the reform”, she insists, anxious to show that she wants to engage in discussions with the social partners on subjects other than the pension reform itself. even.

“We need to reflect together with the trade unions and employers’ organizations on the way in which we encourage the employment of seniors. Perhaps part of the unemployment benefit could be a supplement to the salary of a senior recruited by a company”, advances the one who also evokes the generalization of the time savings account – a campaign promise from Emmanuel Macron – and loose: “No doubt the pension reform would be less sensitive if we worked more on the quality of life at work. »

The questions of those who started working early are many. Like this woman who started at 16 and wonders about taking into account her three-year parental leave. Reassured. Another, born in 1972, at work at 18, panicked to have seen her retirement age displayed on a retirement calculation application: 63 years and 9 months.

“It is not possible! Tell me on which application of which ministry? “Elisabeth Borne assures that this employee will be able to leave at 62 years old. With, she is careful not to specify, 44 years of contributions. Another question is whether it will be necessary to redo a reform in ten years…

“We always hit the active, never the inactive”

“We also hear talk on TV about taking the money where it is, that is to say from those who are rich rather than from us workers”, calls out a woman who also started at 18 years old. There, it is the local of the stage who gets up to answer. Gérald Darmanin explains that we live longer, that the State “already compensates 30 billion each year” – “It’s the money of those who already pay the most taxes”, he assures.

Returning the ISF and its 4 billion in tax revenue would not be enough and “would lower investment and therefore employment”, explains the minister. And to defend this pension reform as “a social reform because it is for those who have no heritage”. End of the meeting. Or almost.

As an aside, a Tourquennoise stalks her former mayor and complains of measures that “always hit the active and not the inactive”. “Around me, many people wonder why they have to work, when we see the income of the inactive. We pay more fuel, more rent, more nanny. Unemployed and on RSA, with aid, they have more than us, and when we retire, we will barely have 200 euros more than them…”, she gets carried away. And Gérald Darmanin to expose at length unemployment insurance reform , without actually being heard. Difficult explanations in the face of anger.