the executive presents a new reform, disputed

The executive wants to change the unemployment benefit rules again. The government gives, Wednesday, September 7 in the Council of Ministers, the kick-off of a new reform aimed at responding to recruitment difficulties by varying the conditions of compensation for the unemployed according to the economic situation, an idea categorically rejected by the unions. .

First social reform of the second five-year term, this bill aims paradoxically initially to be able to extend the current rules of unemployment insurance. Coming from an already controversial reform of the first five-year term, these expire on October 31.

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It is a question of avoiding any legal vacuum for the compensation of approximately 2.5 million job seekers and the application of the ” bonus Malus “ on the contributions of certain companies which make heavy use of short contracts.

Modulation of allowances

More than the content of the text, which will be debated at the start of the return to parliament in October, it is the sequence that it triggers that is debating.

The executive wishes to modulate the conditions of unemployment insurance according to the situation of the labor market, like what is done in Canada, for example. For this, the government will seize the social partners with a request for negotiation of a modulation of unemployment insurance benefits so that it is, in the words of Emmanuel Macron, “stricter when too many jobs are unfilled, more generous when unemployment is high”.

It will then be up to the trade unions and employers’ organizations to open negotiations or not to agree on criteria – the unemployment rate, for example – whose upward or downward evolution could determine the number of months of work required to access the compensation (currently six months out of the last twenty-four) or even the duration thereof.

The executive hammers, like the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, that there is urgency because it is “unbearable to still have an unemployment rate of 7.4% and at the same time to have unanimous feedback from business leaders on the difficulties of recruitment”. It makes this reform one of the conditions for achieving the objective of full employment (unemployment of around 5%) in 2027.

According to the economist and Renaissance deputy (ex-La République en Marche) Marc Ferracci, one of the instigators of the 2019 reform, “dozens of studies prove that unemployment insurance rules, including duration and eligibility thresholds, have an effect on the level of employment”in particular for the most autonomous unemployed people in their research.

False, retort the unions, for whom recruitment difficulties are primarily linked to training and the attractiveness of professions (salaries, working conditions, mobility, etc.).

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A “countercyclical” measure

Meeting Monday at the headquarters of the CFDT, the unions agreed on their opposition to negotiating such a measure “countercyclical”. They should publish a joint text to this effect next week.

He will wear “on the current problem of employment and recruitment difficulties which will not find an effective response with a reform which further reduces the rights of the unemployed”said Marylise Léon (CFDT).

“We want to negotiate a new unemployment insurance agreement, but on condition that we are left in control”adds Michel Beaugas (FO). “The reality is that the executive gives guarantees to the Medef, which therefore has no interest in negotiating with the unions”deplores François Hommeril (CFE-CGC).

In fact, the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, has already judged that“opening negotiations will be useless, since it will not succeed for lack of a diagnosis shared with the unions”.

From then on the mass seems to have been said. Without an agreement, the government will define the rules by decree alone. He wants an implementation ” before the end of the year “, according to M. Dussopt.

Within a few months, the government intends to open another consultation on the governance of Unédic, the joint unemployment insurance scheme, in connection with the reform of support for the active solidarity income (RSA) and the creation of France Travail, which should succeed Pôle Emploi and better coordinate the players involved in employment.

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The World with AFP