Pension age raised to 62 in vote

FRANCE'S legal retirement age will be raised gradually from 60 to 62 following a vote by MPs.

The vote took place just days after a national strike against changes to the retirement law.

The legal retirement age will be raised by four months every year until 2018.

French workers have been able to retire at 60 since 1983, when then president François Mitterrand lowered the age from 65.

The age to retire on a full pension, whether a person has made a full contribution to their state pension or not, will also rise from 65-67 between 2016 and 2023.

Two other measures aimed at those in the civil service were also passed during the National Assembly sessions which took place last Friday.

Civil servants who can currently retire at 60 will see this raised to 62 and those who are parents of three children or more will lose their privilege to retire after just 15 years of service.

Former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal told France 2 that if the Socialist Party was elected in 2012 it would restore the ages to their current levels.

"If the government doesn't step down, in 2012 we will make them step down," she said.

The proposals must be voted through by the Senate before becoming law.

Union leaders have called for a huge turnout in a strike organised for September 23.

CFDT general secretary François Chérèque told Europe 1: "If I thought that all was lost, I would not call on the French to strike again."

The former head of the Communist Party, Marie-George Buffet, told the TV channel that ex-PM Dominique de Villepin had stepped back on two laws that were passed by the National Assembly following public protests.

Photo: David Monnieux