After eight months of tough negotiations, employers and trade unions struck a deal on Friday to raise the contribution period necessary for workers to get their full rate pension, reports RFI.
From 2019, employees will be encouraged to work longer using a new bonus-penalty system, which could see them receive bonuses of 10 to 30% for working extra.
The text was signed on Friday between France's employer union MEDEF and three of the main trade unions: CFDT, CFTC and CFE-CGC. It aims to inject money into the country's fledgling pension system by giving retirees more flexibility to work beyond the retirement age -currently fixed at 60 and 62 - and this, to ensure they get a full-rate pension.
"It's a good deal for all the signatories concerned, since there are six of us involved," Claude Tendil, a mediator for Medef, told reporters.
The new measures would allow the country to generate 6.1 billion euros worth of savings.
"Encouraging workers to work longer, and creating a flexible retirement system (...) was my aim all along," he added.
Tendi's enthusiasm in having "broken the taboo" on France's beloved social security system, was not shared by all participants.
Two workers' unions: CGT and Force ouvrière, who equally took part in Friday's talks, refused to sign the deal out of concern it would pave the way for France to raise the retirement age.