The parliamentary shuttle was not favorable to the “senior index”. If the Senate approved its creation on Sunday March 5, it however limited it to companies with more than 300 employees, during the examination of the pension reform project. The government thus relied on the “wisdom” of senators, who removed the obligation of this index for companies with more than 50 employees, a threshold which had been added by the National Assembly last month. The senatorial right also insisted that this index be a simple “photograph” and that there be no additional sanction.
The parliamentarians adopted article 2 of the bill by 244 votes against 96, after more than seven hours of debate. The index will be mandatory from November 2023 for companies with more than 1,000 employees, and for those with more than 300 employees from July 2024. Employers will be liable to financial penalties in the event of non-publication of this index, but no obligation of result has been set with regard to the employment of seniors.
The left has long scrapped against this index, pointed as a “legislative horseman”, and perceived as “a gadget” and a “decoy”. “Is the government ignoring the critical situation after 55 years” when “many seniors are not finding jobs”, asked the socialist Monique Lubin, worried like others about the effects of the rise of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years old.
“The index is as useful as the toll-free number to fight the heat wave”, launched the communist Fabien Gay.
Conversely, the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, defended “a tool for measuring the involvement of companies”. “We were inspired by the index in terms of professional equality (women-men, editor’s note), with which companies have improved their rating” and the senior index is “a first stone”, he added .
In the National Assembly, the right had voted against Article 2, after the extension of the index to companies with more than 50 employees from July 2025. This caused the rejection of the article, a serious setback for government and presidential majority.
Deputies and senators will later have to try to agree on the application thresholds.
