The unions had filed a summary appeal to try to invalidate the entry into force of the reform of unemployment insurance, effective since October 1. The Council of State rejected their appeal on Friday, October 22. It therefore validates the date of entry into force but will rule later on the substance, that is to say on the method of calculating the unemployment benefit – which the unions denounce as “Unfair” for job seekers.
The unions had urgently obtained in June the suspension of the contested new rules for calculating unemployment benefit, a flagship measure of the reform which was to come into force on July 1, the Council of State arguing “Uncertainties about the economic situation”. Without waiting for the decision of the highest court on the merits, the government had published a new decree, highlighting “The sharp rebound in employment since May” and allowing the entry into force of the reform on 1 October. The CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC and CFTC – which had abstained the previous time – had quickly indicated that they would attack the new text.
This time, the Council of State judges that “The general tendency of the labor market is no longer an obstacle to the implementation of the reform”. “This is an important reform which will encourage work at a time when our economy is picking up again very strongly”, the Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, reacted immediately to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Social disaster announced”
Fiercely opposed from the outset to the reform, the unions believe that the new method of calculating the daily reference wage (SJR), the basis of the allowance, will penalize job seekers alternating unemployment and activity, “The permittents”.
In a joint statement, the CGT, FSU and Solidaires indicated on Friday to make an appeal “Against the announced social catastrophe”. The three unions noted that the new decree is “The certified copy” from the previous one where “All the elements demonstrating the injustice and the futility of the reform were already registered”. They believed that the Council of State “Must not give in to government pressure”. The CFDT also filed its appeal on Friday, jointly with the CFTC, with arguments in particular “On the fragility of the economic recovery” and on the question of “Unequal treatment in the method of calculating the SJR”, according to CFDT number two Marylise Léon.
FO, who had filed his appeal on Thursday evening, has angles of attack that are “Exactly the same as last time”, said Michel Beaugas, unemployment insurance negotiator within the union. “We do not want the debate on the economic situation to obscure the basic debate on the inequity of this reform, arguments that we were already developing in 2019”, when the reform was presented.
The Unsa also filed on Thursday an appeal based, according to its Deputy Secretary General Vanessa Jereb, on the“Inequity” of the daily reference wage, the “Contradictions” of the government in its presentation of the improvement of the economic situation and on “The objective” displayed to fight short contracts.