FRANCE The

Trends
Though it was originally meant to run only to the end of 1996,
the scheme has been reintroduced on an annual basis ever since.
In 2001, it was opened up to employees born in 1942 or before
with a minimum of 160 quarters of contributions. Though it has
been highly successful, the scheme should nonetheless
completely disappear at the end of 2003, since all those involved
will have reached the age of 60 and will hence be of pensionable
age.
• End of Career Leave (Congé de fin d’activité or CFA). This
scheme was created in 1997 for the three classes of civil servants
(state, local and health-service). It enables workers satisfying
certain age and contributions criteria to leave their employment
before the age of 60.
• The new Designated Employee Early Retirement Scheme (le
nouveau dispositif de cessation anticipée d’activité de certains
travailleurs salariés or CATS). This scheme, in force since
February 2000, applies only to companies in sub-sectors for
which a national agreement has been signed. 10 Set at a maximum
of five years, the agreement can cover only those workers aged
over 55 who have performed 15 years of shift or production-line
work,have worked 200 nights or more per year for 15 years, were
registered as disabled workers at the date of the sub-sector
agreement and have at least ten years’ social security
contributions.
• Early Retirement for Asbestos Workers (la cessation anticipée
d’activité des travailleurs de l’amiante or CAATA). This scheme
relates to employees in establishments where materials
containing asbestos are produced, in ports (dockers and other
staff handling asbestos) and in naval building and repair
establishments. 11
Secondly, there are those schemes which allow for a progressive
cessation of work, the main one being the Phased-In Early
Retirement scheme (Préretraite progressive or PRP). This may be
accessed by companies engaged in a process of staff reduction to
enable them to avoid redundancies or companies wishing to recruit.
Since 1997, companies which recruit have been required to
have among their new recruits a minimum proportion of
so-called priority groups (jobseekers, young people etc.).
Companies have to pay a compulsory financial contribution to the
PRP scheme, 12 though there are variable levels of contribution,
depending on the size of the enterprise and, where there is
recruitment, on the commitment made in terms of recruiting from
priority groups.
Nevertheless, though the number of early retirees has fallen
regularly since 1998 (at least those covered by public schemes13 ), the
number of older unemployed seems to have increased: in 2001, and
for the first time since 1993, 14 more workers aged between 55 and 59
claimed unemployment benefit than took public early retirement.
Current schemes in favour of the older unemployed, of which there
are three, continue to encourage inactivity beyond the age of 55:
• either in the form of the Unemployment Allowance for Older
Persons (Allocation chômeurs âgés or ACA), which is payable to
employees aged under 60 with forty years of contributions, who
have lost their employment, or
• the Special Waiting Allowance (Allocation spécifique d’attente
or ASA) which relates to unemployed workers aged under 60
with forty years’ contributions or more receiving either the
Special Supplementary Benefit (Allocation de solidarité
spécifique or ASS) or Income Support (Revenu minimum
d’insertion or RMI);
• or in the form of dispensation from the need to look for work
(dispense de recherche d’emploi or DRE): this concerns
jobseekers aged over 571 /2 who are in receipt of unemployment
insurance payments and, since 1999, jobseekers aged over 55 who
are in receipt of unemployment insurance payments and who
have made forty years of contributions, together with those who
receive no unemployment allowance; the change to the rules on
DRE in June 1999 had the effect of attracting the eligible
jobseekers to it: hence between 1998 and 1999 the annual inflow
into DRE increased by 43%.
Overall, if from the end of the 1970s onwards, the date for the end of
working life became an instrument of employment policy, we can see
that the second half of the 1990s, together with the early years of the
twenty-first century have been characterised by somewhat opposing
tendencies: on the one hand, the public authorities have sought to
reduce the measures for access to early retirement by decreasing the
levels of funding (ASFNE, ARPE, PRP etc.), on the other, new
schemes have appeared (CATS, CFA) or have been extended (ARPE)
and access to dispensation from job-seeking for older unemployed
persons has become more open. Lastly, the Delalande contribution, 15
which has for many years been criticised for its unintended negative
effects on the recruitment of workers over 50, 16 still remains in force.
In 2001, for example, among persons recruited within the last twelve
months, only 7% were aged over 50 – whereas the 50-64 age group
represents 22% of the occupied labour force – and this percentage
has barely changed in 10 years (the figure was 5% in 1991). We can
confidently attribute this weak dynamism in the “over-fifties” labour
market in part to the consequences of this contribution, even if age
has recently17 come to figure as a criterion in anti-discrimination
legislation (which is new in French law), though this is guided by the
concern to conform to European legal requirements.
Current debates
In these early months of 2003, the current debates are concerned
exclusively with protecting our pension system. Beyond the debate on
the establishment of a system based on collective funding, which does
not, on the face of it, seem as though it will meet with Government
approval, there is a strong temptation to propose an extension of the
period of required contributions, 18 as in 1993 (this is the position
currently advocated by the employers’ federation, MEDEF). There is,
admittedly, some justification for this in the simulations carried out by
10 It relates, therefore, mainly to industrial sub-sectors.
11 The establishments for which this scheme is available are listed in a Government decree.
12 Except in the case of companies signing re-recruitment agreements, on condition that they have at least 250 employees and commit themselves to recruiting 90%
from the priority groups.
13 Alongside the public schemes, company early retirement schemes also exist. These are generally implemented in large companies.
14 With the exception of 1995, when the number of unemployed aged 55 and over was also higher.
15 It has to be noted that this contribution, though it was originally intended to protect employees aged 50 and over from redundancy and to encourage companies to
implement early retirement, has, by financially penalising companies, been a real obstacle to the employment of the over-50s and has contributed to sidelining them,
as companies have kept from recruiting jobseekers over 45. Moreover, the financial penalty was in fact doubled under the Jospin Government.
16 Jean Pisani-Ferry, “Plein Emploi”, Conseil d’analyse économique, December 2000.
17 By the law of 16 November 2001 on the prevention of discrimination.
18 With the public sector (which has remained at a requirement of 37.5 contribution years before the employee is entitled to a pension) being brought into line with the
private.
82 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review