After several weeks of debates in Parliament and citizen mobilizations in the streets, deputies and senators meeting in a joint joint committee agreed on Wednesday March 15 on a pension reform text. Postponement of the legal age, contribution period, employment of seniors, long careers, hardship, special regimes… Here are the main points to remember in the reform project as it will be voted on in Parliament on Thursday, March 16.
The legal retirement age will be raised gradually from 62 to 64, at the rate of 3 months per year from 1 September 2023 until 2030. However, disabled workers will be able to retire from the age of 55, and those on disability at age 60. To obtain a “full rate” pension (without discount), the required contribution period will increase from 42 years (168 quarters) currently to 43 years (172 quarters) by 2027, at the rate of one quarter per year.
This extension was provided for by the Touraine reform of 2014, but on a less tight schedule. The cancellation of the haircut will remain at age 67 for those who do not have all the required quarters.
Most of the existing special regimes, including those of the RATP, the electricity and gas industries and the Banque de France, will be put into extinction according to the “grandfather clause”, already implemented at the SNCF. The measure will therefore only apply to new hires.
The pensions of future retirees with a “full career” (43 years of contributions in the long term) may not be less than 85% of the minimum wage, i.e. approximately 1,200 euros gross per month at the time of entry into force of the reform. Current retirees who meet the same criteria will also benefit from this revaluation.
A “senior index” will be created to better understand the place of end-of-career employees in companies. It will be mandatory this year for companies with more than 1,000 employees, a threshold lowered to 300 employees in 2024. Failure to publish it will be subject to sanctions. A new type of CDI will be created on an experimental basis to facilitate the hiring of long-term job seekers over the age of 60, exempt from family contributions.
The rules for combining employment and retirement will be modified so that retirees resuming a professional activity improve their pensions. Phased retirement, which allows you to spend two years part-time before retiring, will be “relaxed”.
This is the most complex point. Those who started working early will always be able to leave earlier. Currently, a career start before the age of 20 can allow an early retirement of two years, and an entry into the working life before the age of 16 can give the right to an early retirement of four years.
This system will be “adapted” with two new age limits: those who started working between the ages of 20 and 21 will be able to leave a year earlier, at 63; those who started before the age of 20 will be able to leave two years earlier, i.e. 62; those who started before the age of 18 will be able to claim their right to retirement four years earlier, i.e. 60; those who started before the age of 16 will be able to end their career six years earlier, i.e. 58 years.
The minimum contribution period, once the anticipated age is reached, will now be set at 43 years of contributions for all long careers.
A pension bonus of up to 5% will be granted to women who, under the effect of the quarters validated for maternity and the education of children, will exceed the 43 years required for a full pension, one year before the legal retirement age. The number of trimesters for education allocated to the mother, in the sharing between parents, is increased. The child pension increase will be extended to liberal professionals and lawyers.
Orphans will be able to benefit from the reversion of their parents’ pension.
The professional prevention account already taking into account night work and other hardship criteria may be used to finance professional retraining leave. Other criteria such as carrying heavy loads, awkward postures and mechanical vibrations will be taken into account by means of a new “investment fund in the prevention of professional wear and tear”.
Among civil servants, the “active categories” including in particular the police, firefighters and nursing assistants will retain their right to early departure.
