French Govt Says Open To Pension Talks As Strike Persists

French officials said Thursday they were open to negotiate pension reforms that have sparked crippling transport strikes, as unions warned they would keep up the walkout through the holidays unless the government drops the plan

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Dec, 2019 ) :French officials said Thursday they were open to negotiate pension reforms that have sparked crippling transport strikes, as unions warned they would keep up the walkout through the holidays unless the government drops the plan.

Commuters faced an eighth day of travel chaos in Paris as most metro lines were again closed, while just one in four high-speed TGV and regional trains were running.

Unions unanimously rejected a plan unveiled Wednesday for a single pension system that maintains the legal retirement age at 62 but with reduced payouts unless a person works until at least 64.

"There's room for negotiating, over the terms for arduous jobs, over the methods for balancing the budget," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France 2 television.

But even France's moderate CFDT union, the country's largest and long in favour of a single points-based pension system, said the government had crossed a "red line" and called for a fresh day of mass demonstrations for December 17.

"To have a compromise within reach, and then throw it away over a question of budgetary dogmatism, is a huge mistake," CFDT chief Laurent Berger told French daily Les Echos.

"There won't be any Christmas truce," warned Laurent Brun, head of the transport arm at France's hard-line CGT union, the largest among public-sector workers including those at rail operator SNCF.

"We didn't want this, but the government is standing firm, so this is going to go on for a long time," he told France Info radio.