Appointed Minister of Labour, Full Employment and Integration, Olivier Dussopt only appears ninth in the government hierarchy. But he will implement one of the most important and controversial measures of Emmanuel Macron’s program: raising the legal retirement age to 65. A few minutes after his appointment, he indicated on Friday, May 20, on the social network Twitter, that the projects for which he is responsible will be carried out “in consultation”. The unions, opposed to a shift in the age of entitlement to a pension, are waiting for it with guns blazing.
This theme is no stranger to him since he had the opportunity to rub shoulders with the old-age insurance budget – the main pension fund – when he was Minister Delegate for Public Accounts. In this position, which he held for almost two years until Mr. Macron’s re-election on April 24, he consolidated his reputation as a workaholic, reserved and unfailingly loyal to the leader. of State.
PS defector
By moving to rue de Grenelle, where he succeeds Elisabeth Borne – the new head of government – Mr. Dussopt can take advantage of his knowledge of social dialogue. When he was Secretary of State for the Public Service (November 2017-July 2020), he met many times with organizations of agents in order to build a law that transformed the functioning of the State, local authorities and hospitals.
The appointment of this defector from the PS, who became boss of the micro-party Territories of Progress, which is on the left flank of the majority, is commented on variously by the unions. “Our representatives found him to be a good listener whose action produced results, particularly in terms of occupational health in the public service,” says Cyril Chabanier, president of the CFTC. Yves Veyrier, the number one of FO, is more circumspect because his activists in Bercy remember Mr. Dussopt as a personality “little inclined to dialogue”. The minister’s pedigree also reflects a budgetary “approach” to the pension file which sends “a not very favorable political signal”, according to Mr. Veyrier.
