The unions and the employers regain control, but with a very reduced freedom of movement. Tuesday 1er August, Matignon sent them a “framework document” to mark out the negotiations that they are going to engage in, in principle, on the subject of the unemployment insurance scheme. Qualified as “not very prescriptive” by the Ministry of Labor, this roadmap actually guides the discussions in an extremely precise direction: not only is there no question of going back on the achievements of the reforms decided since 2019, but the social partners will also have to , make an additional effort to finance policies in favor of employment and training. Injunctions that displease employee organizations, so much so that some of them wonder if they will participate in the talks.
With the specifications sent to them on Tuesday, the representatives of workers and business leaders find a role of which they had been dispossessed under the first five-year term of Emmanuel Macron. Normally, they are the ones who set the terms of compensation for job seekers, subject to reaching an agreement and complying with a framework letter drafted by the power in place. But, having been unable to agree in 2019, they gave way to the benefit of the State, which modified the system through a series of decrees published over the past four years.
These provisions have been synonymous with a bitter potion for the unemployed: longer contribution period to be able to access the scheme, change in the calculation of the allowance leading to a reduction in the monthly amount paid to people who have accumulated short contracts, degression of the benefit for those whose salary exceeded 4,850 euros per month when they were active… The latest measures, taken in January, will reduce the duration of compensation, according to the principle of “countercyclicality”, which offers favorable treatment to job seekers when the labor market is doing badly – and less generous when companies are hiring with a vengeance.
All these standards ceasing to apply on December 31, it is necessary to define those which will prevail afterwards, from the beginning of 2024 to the end of 2026. Hence the “framework document” statement on Tuesday. The social partners therefore once again become the “legislators” of unemployment insurance, but with a limited capacity for initiative. Thus, the “countercyclical” nature of the system must be preserved. Similarly, Matignon expresses his attachment to the method of calculating the allowance currently in force.
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