Pensions General Strike In France.

MarkCarnage

The new owners thought they could lay off all the French workers quickly and easily to cut costs.

Sounds like the due diligence has been lacking! Who the hell were advising them?

michaels

woolly_wombat wrote: »

I believe that, from memory, it used to be allowed to retire at the legal minimum pension age in France without reduction so long as you had around 40 years contributions.

So rather like the old Rule of 85 for LGPS, but applied nationally.

Some of OH's former colleagues retired at around 60 on full, very generous, pensions but those days are over and people aren't very happy about it.

Unlike in this country, where youngsters swallow the bitter pill of later retirement, the French are a lot more vocal and better organised at making their views known!
.

Personally I have always found with maths that just protesting when I didn't like the answer never did any good - but perhaps things are different in France?

nigelbb

woolly_wombat wrote: »

I believe that, from memory, it used to be allowed to retire at the legal minimum pension age in France without reduction so long as you had around 40 years contributions.

So rather like the old Rule of 85 for LGPS, but applied nationally.

Some of OH's former colleagues retired at around 60 on full, very generous, pensions but those days are over and people aren't very happy about it.

Unlike in this country, where youngsters swallow the bitter pill of later retirement, the French are a lot more vocal and better organised at making their views known!
.

You can take your state pensions at 62 at a reduced rate or in full at 67 or whenever you have paid 165 trimestres (quarters) of contributions so just over 41 years. The good news for those who have worked in both UK & France is that years making contributions in the UK count towards the 165 trimestres & those of us who stayed on at school to 18 got credited with 3 years ie 12 trimestres. I was able to take my French pensions in full at 63. The contributions are large but you get what you pay for so the pension is very much more generous than the UK. The aim is to provide 50-70% of salary on retirement.

woolly_wombat

michaels wrote: »

Personally I have always found with maths that just protesting when I didn't like the answer never did any good - but perhaps things are different in France?

I think we are all aware that things are very different in France, where there seems to be an acceptance of protest as a means of getting it out of one's system.

Doesn't always turn out well!

nigelbb

Tromking wrote: »

Almost identical sized economy and population, liberal western democracy, ageing population...........

France in contrast to the UK has a well diversified economy with manufacturing, petrochemicals, tourism plus a large agricultural sector without an over-reliance on financial services.

JoeEngland

nigelbb wrote: »

France in contrast to the UK has a well diversified economy with manufacturing, petrochemicals, tourism plus a large agricultural sector without an over-reliance on financial services.

UK and France have a similar GDP % by industry and services, and in the UK travel and tourism is actually worth more than financial services.

JoeEngland

JoeEngland wrote: »

UK and France have a similar GDP % by industry and services, and in the UK travel and tourism is actually worth more than financial services.

Further to this, by one measure of economic complexity the UK is in the top 10 list of countries by economic diversity but France isn't:

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-diverse-economies.html

bluenose1

"The UK devotes a smaller percentage of its GDP to state pensions and pensioner benefits than most other advanced economies."

Life expectancy in the most deprived areas is 68 compared to nearly 10 years more in more affluent areas. There must be quite a few who never get their state pension or die soon afterwards.
Maybe State Pension should be more like car /life insurance to make the system fairer as the most affluent on average will receive SP for 10 years longer.

Thrugelmir

nigelbb wrote: »

France in contrast to the UK has a well diversified economy with manufacturing, petrochemicals, tourism plus a large agricultural sector without an over-reliance on financial services.

An agricultural sector that relies on the CAP to subsidise inefficient farms.

Around a quarter of France's manufacturing exports are for the Germany motor industry. If Germany is slowing as the figures suggest. Then doesn't bode well for France.

michaels

bluenose1 wrote: »

"The UK devotes a smaller percentage of its GDP to state pensions and pensioner benefits than most other advanced economies."

Life expectancy in the most deprived areas is 68 compared to nearly 10 years more in more affluent areas. There must be quite a few who never get their state pension or die soon afterwards.
Maybe State Pension should be more like car /life insurance to make the system fairer as the most affluent on average will receive SP for 10 years longer.

Because we have more private provision which is increasingly funded rather than payg. I'm guessing the French state system is payg which becomes problematic with an aging population and increasing dependency ratio.