Tugboat captain Jean-Yves Lagarde should be only 10 years from retiring thanks t...
LA ROCHELLE, France - Tugboat captain Jean-Yves Lagarde should be only 10 years from retiring thanks to special benefits for mariners that date back to the 17th century. But President Emmanuel Macron’s ambition to simplify France’s Byzantine pension system may scuttle his plan.
A career toiling in punishing conditions merits the early retirement accorded to mariners, Lagarde said. Angry he could lose the perk, Lagarde will join a nationwide strike on Dec. 5 called by public sector unions to force Macron to back down. Sailors are covered by France’s earliest pension regime, drawn up in 1673 during the rule of Louis XIV to look after seamen disabled at sea.
Macron says the system is unfair. He wants a single, points-based system under which for each euro contributed, every pensioner has equal rights.NATIONWIDE STRIKE After last-ditch talks this week, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised unions there would be no brutal transition from the old to new regime. But the government would hold its course, he said.
Mariners are particularly burdensome: the state largely covers company contributions, in some cases fully, financing 78% of total contributions in a sector with 39,000 active workers and nearly three times as many retirees.
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