Arcelor Mittal steelworkers dressed in protective suits demonstrate over pension reforms in Marseille October 2, 2010. French unions have called for nationwide street marches to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to raise the French retirement age, the flagship reform of his presidency and one on which he has vowed not to back down.
Like a lot of French workers, Daniel Depret was eager to retire at age 60, the minimum legal age at which he could collect a full pension. The former marketing manager says his income doubled the day he retired, which meant he could afford to keep his home.
"If I had been forced to wait until 62, I would have been living under a bridge," he says.
France has one of the highest rates of unemployment among older workers in Europe, and Mr. Depret was one of thousands who struggled to make ends meet until their retirement at age 60. After he lost his job as a marketing manager when he was 50 and couldn't find a new one in the same field, he spent the last 10 years of his working life earning a meagre income as a part-time night watchman and driver for handicapped children.
Stories like his are part of the reason French workers say they are opposed to President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 as part of broad reforms to the state pension system.
"I'm afraid that if the retirement age goes up, I'll have two extra years on unemployment," says Daniel Quittot, 37, an air conditioning technician.
Hundreds of thousands of those workers are expected at protests across France Tuesday, as unions organize the fourth national strike since the beginning of September aimed at the pension reform. This time, unions have called for a series of rolling strikes they hope will build in momentum until they force the government to back down.
Mr. Sarkozy says the current system is too expensive and will become unsustainable as life expectancy increases. The Senate has already approved several key measures, including the increase in minimum retirement age, and plans to hold its final vote on Saturday. But opinion polls show that about two-thirds of French support the strikes. And French media report that Mr. Sarkozy is concerned that, for the first time, students plan to join the demonstrations.
Even workers such as Mr. Depret acknowledge the pension system must be reformed. But many labour-force analysts say other changes must go along with the pension reform.
They say a crucial change would be to convince employers to keep older workers on.
"Right now, older people cannot work longer because there are no jobs and the employers do not want them to," said political scientist Bruno Palier, who studies European welfare programs.
Although the minimum retirement age is 60, men leave the work force in France on average at age 58. Those over age 50 are less likely to work than in most OECD countries. About two-thirds of men aged 55 to 59 still have their jobs in France compared to about 77 per cent in Canada. And those who lose their jobs after age 50 find it next to impossible to get a new one.
OECD labour-market economist Mark Keese says various government policies "have destroyed the labour market for older workers." Among them was a government-subsidized early-retirement scheme meant to encourage older employees to make room for younger workers.
Most of the schemes have been dismantled, but many companies have come to see workers over 50 as more expensive than they are worth, he says.
"I think it's very soul-destroying. People are quite highly trained," he says. "They want to continue working and they can't. So it's not a question of forcing people to work, it's about removing impediments to them working."
Mr. Depret says he sent "about 100" application letters for marketing jobs after the company he worked for closed. When they were all refused, he bought a small company that sold industrial printers. When that failed, he found the part-time jobs through friends. In his best months, he earned about $1,400 compared to about $7,000 as a marketing manager. His pension brings in about $3,500 a month.
He has two teenage children, and says he managed to feed them and keep his house in a Paris suburb by cutting back on vacations and clothes and refinancing his mortgage.
He plans to write exams this fall to earn his taxi drivers licence and says he will likely work for at least 10 more years in order to have a "proper retirement."
Special to The Globe and Mail
Employment by age
65.6
Percentage of men in France between the ages of 55 and 59 who were either employed or looking for work in 2009
76.4
Percentage in Canada
4.5
Percentage of new hires in France that were between 50 and 64
9
Percentage in Canada, which shows it's much harder for older workers in France to find a job than it is in Canada
Source: OECD