See you on January 19: the unions did not wait long before announcing the date of the first demonstration against the postponement of the retirement age. However, Elisabeth Borne spared no effort to ease tensions during the presentation of the reform on Tuesday, January 10. Not only by emphasizing the usefulness of the consultations carried out with the social partners: “I am certain that the exchange, even in the event of disagreement on important points, makes us collectively progress.” But also by insisting on the “justice” measures resulting from this dialogue, such as the revaluation of the minimum pension for all retirees, and not only the new ones as initially planned, or the taking into account of the TUC, the “work of collective utility” of the 1980s, in the calculation of rights.
Among the measures intended to appease the unions, one of them went a little unnoticed: the announcement of the opening of negotiations around the universal time savings account. It is however a powerful appeal of the foot in the direction of the CFDT. For several years, the union has been campaigning for the creation of a “time bank” which would allow better organization of working time throughout life.
This proposal had been taken up by Emmanuel Macron under the name of “universal time savings account”. The time savings account, which makes it possible to accumulate days of leave or RTT not taken in an account and to use them later, already exists, but is far from being widespread in all companies. The idea is therefore to make it accessible to everyone.
If the idea was already part of the presidential project, its inclusion in the framework of the pension reform seems much less intuitive… Yet it has a double utility. First, this device could allow employees to use these days to arrange their end of career. And therefore to make the 64-year-old potion a little less bitter. Above all, the CETU could allow the pipe of peace to be smoked with the reformist union, favored by François Hollande, a little shunned by Emmanuel Macron and today in frontal opposition to the pension reform.
With the announcement of this negotiation, the executive will indeed give Laurent Berger some grain to grind on one of his favorite subjects, and show that he is ready to leave room for maneuver to the social partners. “It is necessary to give prospects to interprofessional dialogue where it is legitimate. I am thinking for example of the universal time savings account (CETU)”, underlined Marc Ferracci, deputy of the majority, recently in an interview with L’Express. Could the bet prove to be a winner? As always in matters of social climate, forecasts are difficult. Especially since the trajectory taken by the demonstrations – flop or success, overflows or not – will also influence the future strategy of the CFDT.
