“You should not work one extra day per year, but three! », Says Finistère senator Michel Canévet

To finance Social Security and care for the elderly, the Senate voted this Wednesday in favor of one additional day of work per year. Before the final vote, which will take place before Christmas, you are not asking for seven more hours… but eighteen?

Michel Canévet: Yes, but these hours, contrary to the measure currently voted on, will be paid to employees! And this will bring the State not 2.5 billion euros per year, but more than 6 billion. The seven hours planned just make it possible to cope with the current deficit in retirement homes. In Finistère, for example, more than three quarters of the approximately 110 public establishments are in this case. I say we have to go further. It's not just this immediate problem that needs to be resolved. We must anticipate and correct the situation to have a real impact on the future.

The social situation in the country is electric. Don't you fear that this measure and your proposal will inflame people's minds a little more?

But what do the French want? ! Maintain their social protection model or reduce social benefits? Because that’s what it’s all about! How do we finance our retirement homes? Do we close them? Employees are involved, but so are businesses. The measure plans to double the CSA rate (autonomy solidarity contribution for the elderly and disabled people), which will increase from 0.3% to 0.6%. I also add that by working more, France will gain in productivity, and therefore in competitiveness. Our products will export better, the country will become richer and people will live better. Currently, we are one of the countries where people work the least among other comparable countries (OECD). On average, other countries work 132 hours more than us per year! So, by asking for 18 more hours, we are still far from the mark!

When we look at the figures for 2022, France is at the bottom of the ranking in a study published at the end of 2023 (Rexecode/Eurostat). But the richest countries have an average effective annual working time lower than France: Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. The countries that work the most in Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Greece, etc.) are far from being the richest.

The latest figures communicated to us indicate that Germany works more, and we work 132 hours less than the average of OECD countries.