France -Talks on pension reform started -May 13, 2013

The government is due to consult employers and trade unions through to parliament's summer recess on an overhaul of France's pension system, a reform seen as vital to sorting out French public finances. The started consultations will not give them a say in a draft law due in the second half of the year as was the case with labour market rules agreed in January (the upper house of Parliament just passed these labour market rules). France will see a 20 billion euros annual shortfall in its pension system by 2020 if it does not act. The government has ruled out increasing the legal retirement age beyond 62, but said that extending the pay-in period beyond the current 41.5 years is all but inevitable. Two other options include raising the level of contributions to the retirement system and paring down pay-outs by limiting how much pensions are adjusted for inflation. In the meantime

English: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/13/uk-france-pensions ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/world/europe/french-lawmakers-loosen-labor-rules ...

 

For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.