Posted on 09/18/2007 10:35:38 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday announced an overhaul of pensions perks for half a million mainly public sector workers, seen as a key test of his government's reform drive.
He promised that the so-called "special regimes" -- which allow state rail and power employees and some other categories of worker to retire early and on higher pensions -- will be reformed in the next "few months".
"It is a question of fairness," Sarkozy said in a policy speech before journalists.
Two waves of pension reform, in 1993 and 2003, left the system of perks untouched for fear that mass train and power strikes would grind the country to a halt.
The last time France tried to touch the special regimes was in 1995, when three weeks of protests forced then prime minister Alain Juppe to back down, but this time polls suggest a wide majority of the public support the government.
"We will not undertake a third reform of pensions without including them," Sarkozy vowed, saying "the aim must be, at least, to align the special regimes with those in the public sector that were reformed in 2003."
"The various situations that justified this or that advantage before World War II or even World War I have largely disappeared."
Sarkozy said he would not force changes through without consulting unions -- who have demanded the reform be negotiated sector by sector -- but he set a fast pace for the reform process.
He said Employment Minister Xavier Bertrand would launch consultations with unions and business leaders from Wednesday and draw up a blueprint for reform within two weeks, with branch-by-branch negotiations to follow on the detail and calendar.
But the leader of the CFDT union, Francois Chereque, warned the timeframe "imposed" by Sarkozy would be impossible to meet.
"You cannot carry out five social reforms in France at the same time, and by wanting to move too fast we will end up with a rushed job."
Bernard Thibault, the leader of France's biggest union, the Communist-backed CGT, said he was "not happy" with Sarkozy's speech, in which he also confirmed plans to relax rules on the 35-hour working work, and promised a rethink on the funding of healthcare.
He called Sarkozy's proposals "totally unbalanced," saying they placed an unfair burden on workers, while "businesses are completely let off the hook".
"I think we are going to have to think about mobilising workers if we want to change these social policies," he warned.
But polls show French people are ready for a reform of a special pension system increasingly seen as unfair.
Currently the state bails out the "special" pensions fund to the tune of some five billion euros (6.9 billion dollars) a year, because contributions from workers fall far short of payments.
Some 1.1 million people currently draw pensions under the scheme, funded by contributions from 500,000 workers.
The reform would affect employees of the state-owned SNCF rail company, the RATP Paris metro operator, utility suppliers EDF and GDF and some other categories of workers including members of parliament and lawyers' clerks.
Workers in these professions can retire after 37.5 years, instead of 40 years for others.
At RATP for example, more than half of employees retire before the age of 55, and the average duration of retirement is nearly 25 years, compared to 17.7 years in the private sector.
In addition, pensions are calculated on the basis of final salaries rather than on the average over the course of a career.
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech unveiling his plans to reform social pension privileges given to some workers during a speech at the French Senate in Paris. Sarkozy told his government to reform special pension privilege without delay, saying the measures should be ready in several months.(AFP/Pool/Benoit Tessier)
When something can not go on forever - it won't. (one of my favorite sayings)...
Can you say “Ponzi scheme”?
The irony is that while Socialist France seems to be moving back to more of a free-market economic system, we’ll be heading in the opposite direction should “Hill” become the next President.
I guess we will see some cars getting torched on the news again, this time by a bunch of thugs with walkers....
Off topic. Sarkozy came to the US and met with Bush, Then stayed a week at a Lake House next to Mitt Romney's house. The MSM mentioned the odd "coincidence". I've tried to find ot if there was more to it but the MSM didn't seem to want to do any "investigative" journalism on it.
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