The new unemployment insurance reform will be presented on Monday. Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt will draw attention to “the selected arbitrations”, but the government has ruled out touching the compensation level.

The new reform of the unemployment insurance, which aims to change the compensation rules according to the state of the labor market, will be presented on Monday against the background of still strong and unanimous opposition from the trade unions.

The “labour market” bill passed Thursday by parliament triggers the possibility to modulate certain rules by decree. Executive goals? Make the unemployment insurance “stricter when too many jobs are unfilled” and “more generous when unemployment is high”.

Despite the opposition of all the trade unions to the very idea of ​​this graduation, condemning an “unfair” and “inefficient” reform, the text provided for a consultation launched in October.

During a final multilateral meeting with the social partners on Monday morning, Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt will draw attention to “the selected arbitrations”. Against the backdrop of anger over purchasing power, the government ruled out touching the compensation level from the start.

Minimum floor of 6 months

The Labor Minister also assured that he would not affect the conditions for access to social security, i.e. the condition of having worked six months over a reference period of 24 months.

“We will not compensate less, we will work on the duration of the compensation”, maintaining “a floor”, affirmed Mr. Dussopt Sunday in the program Le grand rendez-vous Cnews / LesEchos / Europe 1.

According to several union and employer negotiators who held bilateral discussions with his cabinet this week, the minister will announce that, in addition to a minimum floor of 6 months, the duration of the compensation will be modulated according to the evolution of the unemployment rate for all people who have had the expiry of their contract after 1 February 2023.

When the labor market situation is judged to be good, the duration of the compensation will be reduced by a coefficient to be published on Monday, probably between 0.75 and 0.9 according to these sources. According to Sunday newspaperthe rate of 75% would have been chosen, which therefore means that a compensation period of 24 months would be reduced to 18 months.

The way to assess unemployment – threshold, dynamic – will be specified on Monday, but if unemployment stays around the current level, i.e. 7.3-7.4% since the start of the year, the reduction in duration will apply according to these. sources.

The director insists that it is urgent in light of companies’ recruitment difficulties, and makes this reform a first stone in his strategy to achieve full employment by 2027, i.e. an unemployment rate of around 5% compared to 7.4% currently. A goal which the minister considers “always achievable”.