Source: Reuters France's Constitutional Council is due to deliver its verdict on Friday on a deeply unpopular bill which will delay retirement by two years to 64, and on plans for a referendum to challenge it. Here is why this matters and what could happen: VERDICT ON THE PENSION BILL * The Council can strike down the bill altogether if it considers it breaches the Constitution. Opposition parties have asked it to do so, for choosing to tack the [...]
By Bart Biesemans, Layli Foroudi and Ingrid Melander Source: Reuters Union activists barged into the Paris headquarters of luxury goods company LVMH on Thursday, saying the French government should shelve plans to make people work longer for their pension and tax the rich more instead. In a 12th day of nationwide protests since mid-January, striking workers also disrupted garbage collections in Paris and blocked river traffic on part of the Rhine in eastern France. "You're looking for money to [...]
By Liz Alderman Source: The New York Times During her 38-year career as a sales and marketing manager, Christine Jagueneau rarely thought about retirement. But when her job at a French industrial company was eliminated just before her 59th birthday last February, the idea of tapping her pension took on unexpected urgency. Despite nearly a dozen job interviews, she said, employers have suggested that she’s too old to be hired. She has just enough savings to coast to France’s [...]
Source: The Economist The French government has decided to go ahead with a controversial pension reform that looks set to divide the country and spark social unrest. On January 10th Elisabeth Borne, the prime minister, unveiled the details of changes to the country’s mandatory pension rules. The fate of these measures will test Emmanuel Macron’s ability to continue to reform France during his second presidential term. The centrepiece is a raising of the legal minimum retirement age from 62 [...]
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has said the government invoked a special clause in the country’s Constitution to push through a controversial pension reform plan without a parliamentary vote. Speaking at the Lower House of Parliament, Philippe on Saturday announced his decision to use Article 49-3 to make into law the government’s pension reform bill, reports Xinhua news agency. The French goverment has planned to replace the current pension system of 42 regimes by a point-based single one with [...]