CGT-FO endorses supplementary pensions agreement
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In June 2001, France's CGT-FO trade union confederation, which had initially rejected a supplementary pensions agreement reached in February 2001 by the MEDEF employers' confederation and the CFDT and CFTC union confederations, announced that it would now endorse the accord. Once CGT-FO has signed, three of the five nationally representative trade union confederations in the private sector will have endorsed the agreement.
Negotiations on supplementary pensions in the private sector (under the AGIRC and ARRCO schemes) were launched in March 2000 as part of the "overhaul of the industrial relations system" project initiated by the MEDEF employers' confederation (FR0102134F). These talks resulted in an agreement signed on 10 February 2001 by MEDEF and the CFDT and CFTC trade union confederations (FR0103136N). The majority of the five nationally representative trade union confederations - CGC-CFE, CGT and CGT-FO- initially rejected the agreement. CGT-FO's major bone of contention was the provision of the agreement requesting that the legislature reform basic state pension schemes, and setting out the criteria and the time-scale to be followed. The union also opposed making an extension of the contribution period the only tool for reforming pension schemes. While CGT-FO did not oppose all the provisions of the agreement, MEDEF had adopted an "all-or-nothing" signing policy, making any partial signature impossible.
In a letter dated 11 June 2001, CGT-FO stated that it intended to sign up to the agreement. On 15 June, it signed the annexes to the agreement dealing, in particular, with the creation of the Association for the Management of Funds Financing AGIRC and ARRCO (Association pour la Gestion du Fonds de Financement de l'AGIRC et l'ARRCO, AGFF). This new body, set up by the supplementary pensions agreement, will cover any additional costs related to supplementary pension schemes for those retiring at the age of 60 to 65. The justification for this change in stance put forward by Bernard Devy, a member of the CGT-FO confederal bureau and chair of the administrative board of ARRCO, the jointly-run private sector supplementary pension scheme for non-management staff, was that it would be foolhardy to allow the social partners to lose their say on the supplementary pensions issue. In opposing the agreement, CGT-FO risked losing the chair of the ARRCO board, in the same way as it had already ceded to CFDT those of the UNEDIC unemployment insurance fund in 1992 and the CNAMTS sickness insurance fund in 1995.
CGT-FO's approval means that three of the five representative union confederations will now have signed the supplementary pensions agreement.