Unemployment insurance: the government paves the way for reform

First text supposed to be presented to Parliament in early October, labor bill begins to come out of the shadows, with the executive’s sights set on the first reform of the five-year term. “As of this weekend, Olivier Dussopt will consult the social partners on the question of unemployment insurance”, announced this Tuesday on France Inter the spokesman of the government, Olivier Véran, referring to his colleague in charge of Labour, Full employment and Integration.

Specifically, informal bilateral exchanges were organized in video with the leaders of the eight trade unions or employers’ organizations nationally representative. The text will be sent to them for consultation, on Friday in principle. Very short, it will be organized around three themes, according to our information.

Double shot

Two of them shouldn’t be a problem. This is first of all the reform of the validation of acquired experience or VAE which, twenty years after its birth, continues to vegetate . The second is the follow-up to be given to the decision of the Constitutional Council to invalidate, with a postponement to October 31, an article of law on professional elections.

The third subject, that of unemployment insurance as indicated by Olivier Véran, promises to be more conflictual, even if the blow will be done in two stages. The bill is actually only going to extend the Unédic agreement , that is to say the body of rules for unemployment benefit, resulting from the latest reform. Denounced for their harshness by the unions, these rules end on October 31 for lack of Matignon having organized the negotiations on time. The extension, until the end of 2023 at the latest, will allow time to build the next agreement which will carry the reform.

As for the method, Olivier Dussopt will probably meet the social partners even if the law For the freedom to choose one’s professional future of 2018 frames things: the executive is required to send them, after consultation, a framing letter , unions and employers then having four months to reach an agreement or not, free after the Ministry of Labor to approve it or not.

On the merits, on the other hand, Emmanuel Macron has reiterated his campaign stance during his July 14 address : the Head of State wants the compensation rules to stick to the economic situation. “Our compensation rules must take into account the job market situation, as does, for example, Canada,” said Olivier Dussopt in the process. “When things are going well, we tighten the rules and, when things are going badly, we relax them. »

The governance of Unédic in question

This is what had already been done at the end of the Covid, the Castex government (with Elisabeth Borne at the Ministry of Labour) having conditioned the entry into force of the reform on the return to better fortunes of the labor market (based on declarations of hiring and the number of unemployed registered with Pôle Emploi without any activity).

It remains to be seen how this consultation will integrate the evolution of Unédic’s governance. With the replacement of the salaried unemployment contribution by a share of CSG and the strict supervision of the negotiations of agreements by the State, we have gone from a joint system to a more or less assumed threesome. The subject is not unrelated to the “France travail” project for the reorganization of players in the public employment or integration service employment center, local missions, departments.