the executive wants to promote their employment, the skeptical actors

business / By

Barthélémy Philippe, edited by Yanis Darras
modified to

07:18, January 24, 2023

While the executive has presented its pension reform project, which notably plans to push back the legal retirement age to 64, unemployment among seniors is a concern for the government. To remedy this, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt confirmed the creation of a senior index, for companies with more than 300 employees. Without convincing the actors.

The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt confirmed it after the presentation of the pension reform in the Council of Ministers, this Monday morning: there will indeed be an annual senior index in companies with more than 300 employees. The tool, modeled on the gender pay equality index, will be implemented at the end of 2023. It will make it possible to measure the involvement of large companies in the training, retention and recruitment of senior employees.

France lags behind on senior employment

Because, while the legal retirement age could be pushed back to 64, all the players in the professional and political world agree on one observation: France has a problem with the employment of seniors. With an employment rate among 55-64 year olds of only 56%, France is one of the worst students in Europe in this area. So the government wants to put an end to mass unemployment among the over 55s, thanks to this senior index. And if the companies do not wish to play the game and do not publish their index, the latter will be exposed to financial sanctions, equivalent to 1% of the payroll.

However, this system does not convince either the representatives of employees or those of employers. “It seems totally out of step to me. We are short of manpower and we absolutely need to recruit, regardless of whether it is seniors or juniors. The decision-making power is clearly in the hands of the candidates and we , companies, we adapt”, underlines at the microphone of Europe 1, the president of Growth plus, which brings together nearly 500 SMEs and mid-sized companies, Audrey Louail.

Sanctions also on aid?

“Companies benefit from state aid of all kinds. It is not complicated to condition it on the maintenance of seniors in employment”, annoys for his part François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC union, which regrets that the scope of sanctions is limited solely to failure to publish the index. “This is how it should work,” he concludes.

So, in an attempt to reassure, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt specified that objectives will be assigned to companies in terms of employment of seniors. These will be defined by decree in the coming months.