France: The French pension reform: the French Constitutional Court validates the content of the bill with a few exceptions
Author: Natacha Lesellier
On March 20th, 2023, the French Prime Minister used the government’s constitutional power to impose the new French pension reform bill without requiring a vote by Parliament. The use of this right allows members of Parliament to introduce a call for a vote of no-confidence. Two such calls for votes were introduced but did not reach a sufficient majority from members of Parliament. The pension reform bill was therefore considered as officially adopted.
However, the question remained of the validity of certain terms of the bill with regards the French Constitution. Therefore, on March 21st and 22th 2023, the French Prime Minister as well as by members of Parliament requested the French Constitutional Court to render its opinion on the bill.
On April 14th 2023, the Constitutional Court validated the contents of the bill, and namely the raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and the lengthening of the pension contribution period (increasing the number of quarters according to the year of birth).
However, the Constitutional Court censured six measures which had been included in the bill and which aimed to monitor or facilitate the employment of older employees, including the “senior index,” which required employers to publish information on the older members of their workforce as well as an a new experimental employment contract for such employees.
Certain measures aimed at older civil servants relating to early retirement measures were also rejected.
The bill was enacted on April 14th2023 and published in the Journal Officiel on April 15th 2023.
Key Action Points for Human Resources and In-house Counsel
Companies should ensure they are up to date on the contents of the new pension reform to be able to answer their employees’ questions.
