Written November 9, 2022, 5:22 p.mUpdated November 9, 2022 at 17.51
The case was concluded in less than an hour. Senators and deputies met late Wednesday morning in a joint committee (CMP) and found a compromise on the unemployment insurance reform project. The LR group in the Senate, which had been very harsh on the text, rejoiced that its firmness had “paid off” in the service of “labour value”. But in the end it was rather the majority that won the day, at the expense of a little ballast.
The ballast in question, which was the only hard point of the discussion, concerns CDI’s refusal. The right-wing senators had added an article abolishing the payment of unemployment benefits after three refusals to convert his CDD to CDI (under similar conditions). Ditto after a rejection after a temporary mission.
Gas factory
At the risk of breaking the principle of equality, it was finally decided to reduce the number of refusals to 2 in both cases. “When a job is vacant and likely to be filled, there is no reason to put national solidarity at risk,” the right-wing senators argued, defending an anti-“abuse” measure at a time when “many professions are in tension “.
Without denying the problem, the rapporteur for the bill in the assembly, the representative of the Renaissance Marc Ferracci, believes that the measure is too complex, an argument that the LR deputies had lined up behind. Not only must the employer notify the Pôle emploi of the CDI rejections, but in addition the operator’s agents must check whether the rejections are compatible with the reasonable job offers that the unemployed person must already accept under a penalty.
It is clear that what appears to be a totem for LR senators risks turning into a small used gas plant. Letting go of this point was therefore not a great sacrifice for the majority to preserve the essentials in their eyes. First of all, there is bonus-malus, i.e. the modulation of the employer’s unemployment contribution according to the degree of use of short-term contracts. The LR senators had emptied it of its contents and accepted a request from the employers. He has fully recovered.
The majority also accepted that the bill is about the opening in 2023 of an interprofessional negotiation on the management of Unédic, but this is only registered in the labor minister’s hard promise.
The guidance for the social partners will focus in particular on the scheme’s financial balance, which is obvious. It will also focus on whether to maintain a framework document, which was imposed since the 2018 law, when it comes to changing the compensation rules. When you know that unions and employers are against it, the answer leaves no doubt.
The VAE reform
Finally, LR senators wanted to advance the deadline to 31 August 2023 for the period in which the government is authorized to change the compensation rules by decree (it wants to change them according to the situation). The date of 31 December 2023 has been reinstated to enable the negotiations on Unédic’s management to proceed smoothly.
For the rest, the bill from the CMP maintains the reform of the VAE, the presumption of resignation in case of abandonment of the position or the extension of the experiment with fixed-term contracts for several replacements. It will be finally voted on in the Assembly on November 15 and in the Senate two days later.
