The top court in France has ruled out a referendum on President Emmanuel Macron's contentious pensions legislation for the second time.

The Constitutional Council said that the application for a referendum did not satisfy all the constitutional requirements needed for a plebiscite to be held.

The court's role was to assess whether the opposition parties' request met the legal conditions for a potential referendum.

If so, supporters would have had nine months to collect signatures from at least 4.8 million, or 10 percent, of French voters to force a public vote.

The referendum tool was introduced as part of the country's constitutional reform of 2008 and is a device which provides for the possibility of organizing a popular consultation on a bill.

The Council also decided to disregard a call by opposition MPs for a new debate on reversing the legislation and restoring the retirement age back to 62.

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Opponents of Macron's legislation, who have been holding mass street protests on a regular basis since mid-January, have not lost hope of eventually in forcing the government to scrap the legislation.

The next day of mass social action across France is due to take place on June 6, with hundreds of thousands of people likely to join demonstrations and marches nationwide.

After that, on June 8, French MPs will debate an opposition bill to repeal the pension legislation.

However, even if that passes the lower house, it seems unlikely that French senators would agree to the proposal to annul the legislation that was only signed into law last month.

The unions want ministers to drop what they describe as "unjust" legislation, which they argue unfairly impacts women and lower-paid workers.

On May 3, the French finance minister once again defended the changes, saying that "there is no credible alternative to the reforms that we have proposed."

The government argues that the changes are essential to make France's pension system financially sustainable in the future.

Last month, the nine members of the French Constitutional Council, who are known as the 'Sages' or the 'Elders,' approved most of the government's controversial legislation.

Macron then signed the approved section of the bill into law, and the changes, which include the headline policy change to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, are due to come into force on September 1.

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