Strike action in France will resume tomorrow (31 January) over the government’s plans to increase the retirement age, with Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, doubling down on the proposals to reform the pension system.

The French government has announced that it will raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 to help address an ageing population and expensive pension system.

In an interview on French radio network France Info, Borne stated that the plan to increase the retirement age going ahead was “now non-negotiable”.

Following large-scale strikes on 19 January, which saw more than a million people take to the streets in protest, the French government has suggested that there may be some aspects of the pension reforms that could be negotiated on, but the raising of the retirement age was not one of them.

Unions have now announced that further strike action will take place on 31 January and called for an even larger number of people to attend.

Heavy disruption to public services is expected, including public transport.

The proposed pension age reform process is scheduled to start in September, reaching 63 years and three months by 2027 and hitting the target age of 64 in 2030.

Alongside the raising of the retirement age, several other proposals were presented as part of the reforms.

The amount of time working needed to receive a full pension will rise from 42 years to 43 and a guaranteed minimum pension income will be introduced.

This income level will be set at no less than 85 per cent of minimum wage for new retirees.

Public sector workers in mentally or physically demanding jobs will keep the right to retire earlier than the wider workforce, but their retirement age will rise at the same rate.

The government also announced that differing retirement ages and pension benefits for certain workforces, such as rail workers, would end.

A full debate on the bill is due to take place in the National Assembly on 6 February, with opponents to the bill submitting 7,000 amendments in an attempt to slow its progress.

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