Pension reforms

Pension reforms - The French government has announced that it’s willing to compromise on its pension reform but will not abandon plans to rebuild a system that allows some workers to retire in their fifties. The announcement made on Wednesday comes a week ahead of a planned national strike.

President Emmanuel Macron was elected in May 2017 on a pledge to overhaul the pension system and has promised to introduce a points-based system under which all workers will have the same rights. However on a first draft of the pension reform, unions at state-owned rail and metro operators - where some workers can retire in their fifties – have planned an open-ended transport strike on December 5th.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he favoured a compromise between "an immediate and brutal transition" that would make the reforms applicable to people born after 1963, and another clause that would impact only people entering the labour market from 2025.