the modulation of allowances will not be subject to negotiation

This is the first text that the deputies will examine when they return to the National Assembly, at the beginning of October. The law project “laying down emergency measures relating to the functioning of the labor market with a view to full employment” was presented, Wednesday, September 7, in the Council of Ministers by the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt. It must lead to a new transformation of unemployment insurance, after that of 2019.

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The number one objective of the text is to extend until the end of 2023, by a decree in Council of State, the compensation rules resulting from the previous reform, which end on 1^er november. Without this emergency measure, more than 2 million job seekers would find themselves without benefits.

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But the executive wants above all, three years later, to modify these rules again. Emmanuel Macron has made full employment – ​​around 5% unemployment – ​​the objective of his second five-year term. And the labor shortages faced by companies convinced the President of the Republic that more had to be done to encourage the unemployed to take up available jobs. With this in mind, the terms of compensation will vary depending on the economic situation. “When things are going very well, the rules have to be incentives, and when things are not going well, they have to be more protective”explained Mr. Dussopt, Wednesday, on Franceinfo, to describe this mechanism of “countercyclicality”.

“In the end, it is the government that decides”

Two questions arise. What criteria will be modulated? According to which economic indicators? Mr. Dussopt announced that the unions and employers would be seized of the site “within the framework of consultation”. A simple exchange, in short, between the executive and the social partners. “A discussion with proposals and counter-proposals, but in the end, it is the government that decides”, says the Minister. This one had evoked another method, on August 30, in front of several journalists, by speaking about a “negotiation” between organizations of employers and employees.

Mr. Dussopt justified this change of foot during a trip to Evry on Wednesday: “The Council of State has given its opinion and considered that the question of countercyclicality falls within the scope of compensation, and therefore of a regulatory aspect which leads to consultation and not negotiation”, he said. There will therefore be no framework letter sent to unions and employers, but a support document for consultation with government proposals. Exchanges will open quickly, “before the start of the consideration of the bill in Parliament”according to Mr. Dussopt.

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