This Monday, September 12, the social partners will be received by Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt and Minister for Vocational Training, Carole Grandjean. On the menu for this meeting: presentation of the government’s road map on the desire to reform the unemployment insurance fund.
As a reminder: on September 7, the government started a new reform of the unemployment insurance, which aims to respond to the recruitment difficulties in many sectors. The text of the bill aims in particular to extend the compensation rules as a result of the previous reform of 2019. These rules only came into force on 1 December 2021 and are due to expire on 31 October. It is a matter of extending them by at least one year.
During this period, the government wants to negotiate with the labor market partners on a change to the compensation rules, which it no longer seems to be adapted to the labor market situation.
Too generous rules?
In a way, they would be too generous to the unemployed, who would in reality put less effort into looking for a job. The idea is therefore to modulate the conditions for the unemployment fund, depending on the employment situation. A large number of vacancies would lead to tightening of rules, lack of relaxation. A system that Canada has introduced. Several parameters can thus change, from the size of the compensation to the eligibility criteria and the duration of the compensation.
The discussions look set to get tense. On September 9, in a joint press release, eight unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC, CFE-CGC, FSU, Solidaires and Unsa) and five associations of students and high school students (Unef, Fidl, MNL, VL and Fage) condemned this project.
Unions mobilized
“Targeting Unemployment Rights Is Totally Ineffective”, argue the signatories who confirm it “to stigmatize jobseekers again by reducing their right to compensation is deeply unfair”.
According to these unions and associations, “Employers Struggle to Recruit Today” because first, “they cannot find the qualifications and skills they are looking for”and because “the terms of employment offered (…) pose a problem”. The thirteen organizations have planned to meet again on 3 October at Unsa’s headquarters.
On the employer side, Medef is in favor of developing the compensation rules according to the economic situation. Without an agreement with the partners, which is possible, the government could define the next conditions by decree alone.
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