Seized by several unions contesting the reform of unemployment insurance, the summary judge of the Council of State suspended the rules for calculating the amount of unemployment benefit which were to come into force on 1er July, according to an order made public Tuesday, June 22.
First scheduled for 2019, the reform of unemployment insurance, which was one of President Emmanuel Macron’s commitments, has been postponed due to the health crisis. Presented in June 2019 by the government, its objective was to save money and fight against precariousness, by limiting the use of short contracts and by opening up the right to unemployment to resigning employees wishing to set up a project as well as to the self-employed. The decree of March 30, 2021 provided for the application of a new method of calculating the daily reference salary from 1er July.
“Many uncertainties remain as to the evolution of the health crisis and its economic consequences on the situation of those companies which largely resort to short contracts to meet temporary needs”, justified Tuesday in a press release from the Council of State. “However, these new rules for calculating unemployment benefits will significantly penalize employees in these sectors, who suffer more than they choose to alternate between periods of work and periods of inactivity”, he adds.
Appeals “on the merits” judged within a few months
“On the other hand, the judge does not question the principle of the reform itself”, specifies the press release from the highest administrative court. “After this order issued urgently, the ‘substantive’ appeals of the unions against the decree reforming unemployment insurance will be judged by the Council of State within a few months”, can we still read.
For the Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, “The Council of State asks us to wait a little longer” and “Censorship only the date of entry into force”. “We are going to examine the answers that we can bring to reassure the economic recovery and the dynamics of employment” to allow “Rapid application of the reform”, she reacted to Agence France-Presse.
The Council of State had been seized by all the major centers, with the exception of the CFTC, which, while being opposed to the reform, had considered that there was no “Legal basis”. “It is a victory for job seekers, who would have been severely punished by this reform”, the secretary general of the CFDT immediately tweeted, Laurent Berger.