French lawyers attend a demonstration against pension reforms in Paris, France, Feb 3, 2020. (Photo: Agencies)

Hotly-disputed reforms to the pension system in France look likely to become law after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe brought a sudden end to the long-running debate on the topic by using a constitutional tool to push through the plans without a parliamentary vote.

Currently France has 42 different retirement schemes, which President Emmanuel Macron wants to simplify into a single system, but this has provoked a furious response from many, particularly transport workers, who fear they could end up worse off.

After nearly two weeks of debate in the National Assembly, and the opposition filing thousands of amendments, Philippe announced that he needed to "put an end to this episode of non-debate" to "allow the rest of the legislative process to take place."

On Saturday he told television station TF1 that the constitutional tool used was "a means, offered to the government by the constitution, to get parliament out of a rut."

The size of the majority of Macron's En Marche party means the proposals are now all but certain to become law.

The decision is likely to result in more industrial action. Previously, transport workers spent six weeks in December and January on strike over the issue and Philippe Martinez, head of one of France's more militant trade unions the General Confederation of Workers, or GCT, said his members would take to the streets again over Philippe's "scandalous" move.

Across the political spectrum, the shut-down of the debate drew a furious response. On the far left, Assembly member Jean-Luc Melenchon said the government was "brutalizing" the opposition, adding that "though he puts on airs like an elegant, nonchalant dandy, the prime minister has extraordinarily violent methods". On the far right, National Gathering leader Marine Le Pen said the people of France "will not forgive this outrageous manoeuvre".

Critics of Macron's reforms say that end of career benefits are necessary for public service workers to make up for salary inequality with the private sector, and that taking them away will ruin public services.

A government spokeswoman defended Macron's proposal, saying the reforms would create a "durable, solid" system that "provides for equitable intergenerational justice, protects the most vulnerable, restores trust and restores value to work".

Several previous protests against the reforms have turned violent, and Macron has already dropped a plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. His government has also been forced to make concessions to a variety of groups and professions, including the police, pilots and even dancers at the Paris Opera, undermining the point of the reforms, which was to introduce a degree of uniformity.