Elimination of a public holiday: senators vote for employees to work 7 more hours per year without pay

Make all workers work without pay for seven more hours per year to bail out Social Security? This is the shock measure adopted on Wednesday by the Senate, which pleads for this “solidarity contribution” supposed to bring 2.5 billion euros each year to the autonomy sector.

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After extensive debates within the framework of the Social Security budget for 2025, the upper house approved this measure by 216 votes to 119, which would be added to the “day of solidarity” already practiced and geared towards old age and disability.

“We are not making this proposal lightly”, but “today, we must find ways” to “finance the old age wall, the residential shift and the transformation of our nursing homes”, insisted the senator centrist Elisabeth Doineau.

A measure still to be debated

The government said it was unfavorable to this proposal “at this stage” but open to “reworking” it with the social partners.

The measure is not final at this stage, far from it: it will be debated next week during a joint committee bringing together deputies and senators, responsible for find a compromise on this text promised to 49.3 during his final visit to the National Assembly.

But the High Assembly and its majority alliance of right and center, valuable support of Michel Barnier's government, wanted to leave its mark on the flammable budgetary debates of the fall, while the government is in search of 60 billion euros to fill the deficit.

An “attack on the working world”

The Senate text echoes the debate over eliminating a public holiday – a long-standing Senate proposal – but proposes a more “flexible” devicewhich leaves the hand to the social partners to determine the terms of implementation (one day per year, “ten minutes per week”, “two minutes per day”…).

In return for this “contribution of solidarity through work” – the formula found by its creators – employers would see their rate of solidarity contribution for autonomy go from 0.3% to 0.6%.

The left was indignant at the proposal, criticizing for example “a hell of an attack on the working world” according to communist senator Cathy Apourceau-Poly, who responded with a touch of sarcasm by proposing a “dividend solidarity day” to make shareholders contribute. In vain.