After more than a day of debate, the deputies ended up approving, Tuesday, January 31 in the evening, in committee, the creation of a "senior index" in companies to improve "the place of employees at the end of their career" . Opponents tackled what they call an "empty shell". More than 5,100 amendments are still on the menu of the Social Affairs Committee on Wednesday, a number that leaves no chance for parliamentarians to overcome them by the cutoff time of 8 p.m. The bill will then be discussed in the hemicycle from next Monday.
Qualified as useless by the left and the RN, this "index" device, listed in article 2, would be compulsory from 2023 for companies with more than 1,000 employees, and for those with more than 300 employees from of 2024. Employers would be liable to financial penalties in the event of non-publication of this index, but no obligation of result is set in terms of employment of seniors.
An "empty shell" for the ecologist deputy Sébastien Peytavie. "How about a toll-free number while we're at it?" ” mocked the Communist deputy Sébastien Jumel. Left-leaning MPs have tried repeatedly to push for tougher corporate action, but without success. The commission also rejected a series of amendments aimed at lowering the threshold of 300 employees, coming from the left but also from the presidential camp. The initial copy on this index has been slightly retouched. Against the opinion of the Renaissance rapporteur, the deputies adopted on Tuesday evening an amendment by her colleague Astrid Panosyan aimed at making the employment of seniors a subject of social dialogue in the mandatory annual negotiations.
The deputies of Nupes took advantage of the hours in committee to echo the national mobilization on Tuesday of opponents of the reform. "While RN and Renaissance marched together at the bar (of the Palais-Bourbon, editor's note), 500,000 people demonstrated in Paris", welcomed Jean-François Coulomme (LFI), under the protests of those concerned.
While the presidential majority called for "a minimum of responsibility", the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau assured that "the French and the French understand very well why we are obstructing a bill which is the object of the obstruction in the street ". Also opposed to the reform project, RN deputies criticized the delay, while a "majority of rejection" of the text is possible. "We have to change gears" and "we are not in Tolbiac in an AG", launched Laure Lavalette to elected officials on the left. "Please, the French are watching us," committee chair Fadila Khattabi repeatedly pleaded in the face of the heckling.
