New protests over French pension bill
brunt of the budget austerity implemented by Hunt’s Conservative Party after it took power following the global financial crisis.
The British Medical Association, which represents the fully qualified physicians known in the U.K. as “junior doctors,” says first-year doctors have seen their pay fall by 26% over the past 15 years after accounting for inflation.
That means first-year doctors now earn as little as 14.09 pounds an hour, compared with up to 14.10 pounds an hour for baristas at Pret a Manger, a sandwich and coffee shop chain that just gave workers a third raise in less than 12 months, the group said.
Rebecca Lissman, 29, a trainee in obstetrics and gynecology, said junior doctors are just asking is to be “paid a wage that matches our skill set.”
“I want to be in work, looking after people, getting trained,” she said. “I don’t want to be out here striking, but I feel that I have to.”
The government says the medical association’s comparison to baristas is misleading because most doctors actually make more than the basic minimum salary and have much higher lifetime earning potential than shop workers.
Hunt and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are trying to hold the line on public-sector salaries because they say big pay increases will only fuel inflation.
Consumer prices rose 10.1% in the year through January, the fifth consecutive month of double-digit increases. To combat inflation, the Bank of England has approved 10 interest rate increases over the past 15 months, raising the cost of mortgages, consumer and business loans.
That is crimping economic growth, with the central bank forecasting a recession that may last a year or more.
Hunt’s other major goal is rebuilding Britain’s reputation for fiscal responsibility by reducing the public debt built up during the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
PARIS, March 15, (AP): Opponents of French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension plan are staging an eighth round of strikes and protests Wednesday as a joint committee of senators and lower-house lawmakers examines the contested bill.
The latest step in the legislative process to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 is prompting a peak of political tensions and one key question: Will the bill command a parliamentary majority?
Meanwhile, unions are hoping the 200 demonstrations taking place across the country will further show workers’ massive opposition to the plan, promoted by Macron as central to his vision for making the French economy more competitive.
The strikes in France are part of widespread unrest in Western Europe about the economic situation. In Britain on Wednesday, teachers, junior doctors and public transport staff were among those striking to back their demands for higher wages to match rising prices.
Wednesday’s meeting of seven French senators and seven lawmakers from the National Assembly is meant to find an accord on the final version of the text. The Senate is expected to approve it on Thursday, as its conservative majority is in favour of raising the retirement age.
The situation at the National Assembly is much more complicated, however.
Macron’s centrist alliance lost its majority in legislative elections last year, forcing the government to count on conservatives’ votes to pass the bill. Leftists and far-right lawmakers are strongly opposed to the measure.
The head of the conservative Republicans, Eric Ciotti, who himself has a seat at the National Assembly, said in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that “the highest interest of the nation ... commands us to vote for the reform.”
But conservative lawmakers are divided and some are planning to vote against or abstain, making the outcome in the lower house hard to predict.
With no guarantee of a majority, Macron’s government is facing a dilemma: A vote Thursday afternoon in the National Assembly would give more legitimacy to the bill, if adopted, but there’s a risk it would be rejected.