Macron put the pensions reform, which also seeks to increase the number of years people have to work to receive a full pension, at the centre of his re-election campaign last year.
But the 45-year-old former banker lost his parliamentary majority in June after elections for the lower-house National Assembly.
Opposition lawmakers jeered and booed as Borne invoked the controversial article 49.3 to ram through the pensions law on Thursday, having failed to ensure a majority.
The influential Le Monde newspaper warned that Macron was "playing with fire".
"If the country slides into a new bout of anger or locks itself into vengeful paralysis, the executive will only have itself to blame," it said in an editorial.
Borne, whose own position is now on the line, has used the contested loophole to bypass a parliament vote 11 times since becoming prime minister last year.
RN figurehead Marine Le Pen, who leads its MPs in parliament, has described Thursday's cabinet move as "a total failure for the government".
Trains, schools, public services and ports have since January been disrupted by strikes against the proposed reform.
A rolling strike by municipal garbage collectors in Paris has left about 10,000 tonnes of trash piled up in the streets, according to the mayor's office, attracting rats and putting off tourists.
Unions from national train operator SNCF Friday meanwhile urged workers to continue a rolling strike that has caused major disruption on the network.
Already on Thursday night, police used tear gas to clear demonstrators after a fire was lit at the Place de la Concorde, and similar scenes unfolded across France.
The ensuing unrest saw 310 people arrested around the country, including 258 in Paris, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
"The opposition is legitimate, the protests are legitimate, but wreaking havoc is not," he said.
According to polls, two-thirds of French people oppose the pensions overhaul.
