The government is therefore not condemned to use section 49.3 of the constitution to adopt its texts. Deputies and senators actually agreed on Wednesday 9 November on a joint text regarding the reform of unemployment insurance.
But the right wing, with a majority in the Senate and needed to obtain a positive vote from the National Assembly, made its support pay dearly, in particular by tightening access to unemployment insurance for employees on fixed-term contracts or temporary workers who refused to enter the CDI.
Initially, the text proposed by the government was to extend the rules on compensation for the unemployed, which expired on November 1, and pave the way for a graduation of the unemployment insurance according to the situation on the labor market.
No compensation after two CDI refusals
But while businesses say they are having trouble finding staff and the number of unfilled jobs remains high, parliamentarians were surprised that workers on fixed-term or temporary contracts could benefit from unemployment insurance when they refused a job.CDI offered by their employer.
Against the government’s advice, the Senate had therefore voted in favor of a measure to block access to unemployment insurance for an employee on fixed-term contracts after three refusals of permanent employment. The same for a temporary worker after a refusal on CDI.
Senators and deputies agreed on Wednesday in a joint committee on the abolition after a double rejection by the CDI, for fixed-term contracts as for temporary workers (mainly to avoid censure from the Constitutional Council, which could have checked the differentiated treatment of two similar cases).
“We always get the same flags! »
“Unemployment insurance is and must remain an insurance system that aims to alleviate life’s difficulties; it can no longer be a counter that unlocks entitlements that can be recharged and used at will,” welcomed the group Les Républicains (LR) in the Senate.
The counter-cyclicality of the system is confirmed again, which the trade unions strongly oppose. “That’s the bad idea at the moment, explained the Secretary General of the Force Ouvrière, Frédéric Souillot, on Wednesday morning before the Association of Social Information Journalists. We always come out with the same flags! But the number of unfilled jobs is largely the same as before Covid: It is mainly part-time, short-term replacements and, above all, unattractive jobs…”
However, the senatorial right wing will have heard the unions on one point, refuse to leave the hand completely to the government for the reform of the unemployment insurance and give a place back to the negotiation of the social partners.
The Senate orders negotiations with the social partners
At its request, the government will have to open a consultation of trade unions and employers on the management of unemployment insurance and its financial scope. They will even be able to override the government’s framework document (the previous negotiation in 2018 failed due to an overly strict framework letter from the government, impossible to respect).
“The LR group in the Senate insisted that the common system, which is the basis of the French social pact and which has been badly abused by the government recently, is at the heart of the management of unemployment insurance, welcome senators LR. The Senate has put a brake on all nationalization, a constant temptation to Macronism for five years. »
The right-wing, however, fell foul of the bonus-malus of companies that made too much use of short contracts: while the Senate had emptied the system of its content, the original text from the National Assembly was restored.
To be finally adopted, this compromise text, which would have been approved by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, still needs to be voted on in both chambers: on November 15 in the National Assembly and on November 17 in the Senate.
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