Unemployment insurance: the executive paves the way for new governance with the social partners

Let’s go. The Ministry of Labor sent this Friday to the social partners for consultation a draft law supposed to be the first considered in Parliament in early October . In addition to an impressive series of ratifications of ordinances taken during the health crisis (21 in all!), the text bearing “first emergency measures aimed at consolidating and improving the functioning of the labor market” holds more by its political display that by what it contains: even if we are far from the big night, the explanatory memorandum presents it as a “first step” towards full employment, target set by Emmanuel Macron by 2027 .

As expected, articles extend the rules of the 2019 unemployment insurance reform. Coming into force in 2021 with delay due to Covid and legal recourse, they end on 1^er november. The bill entrusts “temporarily” and “exceptionally” to the government the definition of the application measures of Unédic, Mayotte included, until December 31, 2023 at the latest.

Extended bonus-malus

“This delay will make it possible to initiate the necessary consultations on the rules of compensation and on governance, the current organization of which no longer corresponds to the desired balance between the social partners, the State, Unédic and Pôle emploi”, adds the statement of reasons. The Head of State wants in particular that compensation for the unemployed is more or less protective depending on the economic situation .

Incidentally, the so-called bonus-malus measure of modulation of the employer unemployment contribution rate to curb the use of short-term contracts has been extended until August 31, 2024. The results of its first year of application are now known: just under two-thirds of the 18,000 targeted companies gain, while the others will have to pay more .

VAE extended to caregivers

Other urgency given the deadline of 1^er November also, the bill secures the composition of the electorate for professional elections in companies. This, in response to a censorship with delay from the Constitutional Council.

The last milestone set by the government concerns the validation of acquired experience or VAE. Twenty years after its creation, this third route to certification alongside initial training and continuing education still hasn’t taken off .

“Because it is a major lever for promoting and helping to reduce long-term unemployment in sectors where recruitment tensions are more than exacerbated”, its access route is widened. The text authorizes family caregivers to “assert” the skills acquired in the care of the dependency or the end of life of a family member.

For the executive, all these measures “must both respond to the shortage of labor by increasing the number of people able to occupy a job in tension, and support the professional retraining of employees by simplifying access to the validation of acquired experience”. Provided, of course, that the bill receives a majority.

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