20/06/2008
The debate on pensions system reform has been raging in France for several months. Early retirement for workers in gruelling jobs is one of the main stumbling blocks in the negotiations between trade unions and employers' organizations.

A National Assembly report unveiled on 28 May calls for early retirement applications to be assessed by a medical committee based on the individual worker’s present state of health. “Health comes before the type of job. If it has not worsened, there is no reason to qualify for the scheme”, argues right-winger (UMP) Jean-Frederic Poisson, the MP who wrote the parliamentary report.

The French trade unions, however, believe that the employee’s present state of health may be misleading because of the time taken for many diseases to show symptoms, and stress that the life expectancy gap between a manual worker and a manager (7 years) evidences the undeniable impact of hard physical labour, and that guaranteed early retirement is a matter of “social justice”.

Generally, the report calls for “employees to stay working rather than be pensioned off early”. For that, it proposes that if need be and with the medical committee’s approval, working time could be reduced by a third or a quarter at career wind-down, with the employee remaining on full-time equivalent pay. Both this measure and early retirement would be jointly financed by companies and the State in proportions yet to be determined.

• The National Assembly report (in French)