Without much difficulty, the first text of this ordinary session in the Parliament was passed during the first reading in the National Assembly. The bill named “emergency measures in connection with the functioning of the labor market with a view to full employment” which contains the framework for future social security fund regulations, was adopted with 303 votes in favor and 269 votes against.
So far, the adoption of this text in no way changes the current compensation rules, which entered into force a year ago after several postponements and a long legal battle led by employee organizations. On the contrary, it allows them to be extended from 1 November. But in doing so, he also extends the government’s grip on the parameters of the regime until December 31, 2023. This gives him every opportunity to execute by decree the idea that Emmanuel Macron formulated in these terms during the summer. : “When things go well, we tighten the rules, and when things go bad, we loosen them.”
Radical paradigm shifts
To look good, a “consultation” with the trade unions and employers’ organizations must start next week anyway, in order to objectify the criteria that make it possible to say that “it’s going well” or “it’s bad”but also to determine more concretely the levers on which the modulation will work: the government has ruled out questioning the size of the allowance again (which is already affected by last year’s reform), according to him, it will be to examine the eligibility criteria ( you must currently have worked 6 months over a period of 24 months) or the duration of the compensation.
But that’s not all. After its passage in the Assembly, the bill will head to the Senate, enriched with a new provision that has given rise to much debate: from now on, and unless the senators reconsider it or an appeal before the Constitutional Council decides otherwise, an employee who gives up his position “before the meeting” quit. A radical paradigm shift, because today the abandonment of positions is a justification for dismissal due to serious misconduct, which therefore opens up unemployment rights, unlike a dismissal. The subject was put on the table during the negotiations in the committee of LR deputies, who argued for it “seems the phenomenon[ait] increase”. Although no investigation can support this sentiment, and despite criticism from the left-wing opposition, which condemned a new attack on employees.
“Mistreated and underpaid employees”
“You are asking us to act so that employees who are humiliated, mistreated, underpaid, kept in positions voluntarily or by force”, launched Hadrien Clouet (LFI) during the debates. “The sole purpose of this reform is to saveabounded this Tuesday substitute for Calvados Arthur Delaporte (Nupes). The text is an empty shell which gives the government full powers to reform unemployment insurance.
The government and the presidential majority have thus followed in LR’s footsteps. Result: Four identical amendments were tabled (and adopted) by LR, Renaissance, Modem and Horizons. They predict that “an employee who has voluntarily given up his position and does not return to work after receiving a letter of resignation […] presumed to have resigned. Pays him therefore to seize prud’hommes if he will challenge this presumption. The amendment provides in this case that his business “is brought directly to the judge’s office”who must decide “within one month of the referral”. This pas de deux with the right had the gift of exasperating the left. “The sweet music of the new method has already died outlamented during the explanations of vote Marie-Charlotte Garin, deputy (Nupes) in Rhône. It is not surprising that it is with the court that you went to form an alliance.
The left wing, it will only have succeeded in introducing one new provision. The government and the rapporteur of the text, Marc Ferracci (Renaissance), supported an amendment by the communist Pierre Dharréville, which allows for the submission of a government report within twelve months “regarding the conformity of the job offers provided by Pôle emploi”. Crucial topic, since according to studies carried out by the CGT, a great many offers proposed by the Pôle emploi are outside the legal boundaries. This report will certainly be closely scrutinized, as will the famous report of the Ministry of Labor on the non-use of unemployment insurance, first blocked by the government during the presidential campaign, and then finally sent to the parliament at the end of September two years after the originally planned schedule. A report that owed its existence to … an amendment by the same Pierre Dharréville, included in the 2018 law “for the freedom to choose one’s professional future”.
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