Despite the outcry from the unions, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt does not see “what difference it made” to wait to enact the pension reform law.
Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt said on Saturday that he did not see “what difference it made” to wait to enact the law on pension reform despite the outcry from the furious unions at such a rapid “passage in force”.
“What a difference it made to wait three days, four days or five days, while the text is validated”, estimated Mr. Dussopt on France Culture. “The law is voted, validated and therefore it must be published as it is,” he added.
“The constitution says that when the Constitutional Council has given its opinion, the President of the Republic must promulgate it within fifteen days,” he said. “We have chosen to promulgate immediately after the decision, as is the case for all State finance or Social Security laws. They are always promulgated within 24 hours of the Council’s opinion. constitutional”.
For the minister, “it is a step that is taken with the decision of the Constitutional Council”, and “there is no democratic or political crisis”.
Work with trade unions
The unpopular pension reform, with its flagship measure of lowering the retirement age to 64, was promulgated overnight from Friday to Saturday in the Official Journal, after the validation of most of the text by the Constitutional Council . The inter-union had asked “solemnly” Friday to President Emmanuel Macron “not to promulgate the law”.
The Constitutional Council has only cut off a few “legislative riders” such as the senior index, supposed to push large companies (more than 300 employees) to transparency on the place of employees at the end of their careers, or even to negotiate in the event of insufficient results.
“The board censored it, so the index is no longer in the law. But the board didn’t say the index was inadmissible or inappropriate,” Dussopt said.
“It is typically one of the subjects (…) which deserve dialogue and consultation with the social partners”, he added, believing that this subject could be raised when “they wish”.
“I want us to be able to work with the trade unions,” he said again, as they refused an invitation from the president to meet them at the Elysée Palace on Tuesday and let it be known that they would not accept meetings with the executive by May 1. “I think that beyond this meeting, there are subjects that deserve shared work,” he insisted.
