Second ‘solidarity day’ considered
People may be asked to work another day a year for no pay, to help fund the predicted needs of an aging population
PRESIDENT Sarkozy is considering asking everyone to work another day a year for no pay in order to help fund predicted costs of “dependency”.
With an aging population, the cost of looking after frail people who need help in their daily lives is set to rise.
According to Le Journal du Dimanche the state is therefore looking at creating a second “day of solidarity”.
This would come on top of the one day a year that employees are already supposed to work unpaid, with their employers making a payment called CSA, towards helping the elderly and disabled.
This was formerly on Whit (Pentecost) Monday but can now be on any day agreed by the employer, or even spread out over different days pro rata. It was brought in following the 2003 heatwave, when about 15,000 people, mainly elderly, died.
The existing day brings in about €2.2 billion a year, and so a second one would help the state fund a part of the extra €10 billion that is going to be needed in about 15 years’ time according to government predictions.
If one is brought in, it is likely businesses would be free to choose when to apply it, as with the existing one.
An alternative option is being proposed by MP Valérie Rosso-Debord, who has pointed out that the self-employed do not contribute to the solidarity day.
The Conseil des Prud’Hommes d’Angers has applied to the Cour de Cassation on this point, saying it amounts to unequal taxation.
Ms Rosso-Debord suggests making all the self-employed pay the CSA as well, which she says could bring in a similar amount to creating a second solidarity day on the model of the existing one.
An Ipsos survey at the end of last year found that 56% of French people were worried about the financing of their potential dependency problems in old age.
Photo: Alexander Raths - Fotolia.com
