The government will set new compensation rules for job seekers from 1er July, according to a press release from the Ministry of Labor published Monday April 22. The government justifies this decision by the failure, almost two weeks ago, of negotiations between employers and unions on life at work and the employment of seniors. The executive, which wants to tighten the compensation rules to encourage the resumption of activity, has not yet specified what will change, but it has already decided on the method.
The executive will take “a deficiency decree” which will “with the aim of contributing to the achievement of full employment and promoting the rapid return to employment of unemployed people receiving compensation”. As in 2019, employers and unions are once again losing control over the definition of these rules to the benefit of the executive.
The current unemployment insurance rules expired in principle at the end of 2023 but had been extended by a “joining decree” until June 30. The employers and three unions (CFDT, FO, CFTC) reached, after difficult negotiations, an agreement on November 10, 2023 on the compensation rules. But they had left the question of compensation for seniors unresolved, in order to first negotiate on their working conditions and continued employment.
These negotiations reached an impasse on April 10, with employers refusing to make new binding commitments while the unions wanted to obtain new rights for employees. A draft employers’ agreement was formally rejected by the CFDT last week, after FO and the CFE-CGC.
A consultation “in the coming weeks”
However, the unemployment insurance agreement could not be completed in the absence of an agreement on the employment of seniors. Resumption of the definition of the rules will be done after “a consultation” with the social partners, but there will be no new framework letter asking them to negotiate again, a ministerial advisor explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP). These consultations must begin ” in the next weeks “according to the Ministry of Labor.
Furthermore, the government “welcomes with interest” the discussions on the universal time savings account and professional retraining which must conclude on Tuesday between an employers’ organization, the U2P (craftsmen, traders and liberal professions) and unions, reported the same ministerial advisor. Matignon does not, however, plan to resume the agreement in full.
As early as January and without waiting for the outcome of negotiations on the employment of seniors, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, announced that he wanted “go further in unemployment insurance reform”. Last week, he recalled three levers to tighten the rules: the duration of compensation, the condition of affiliation – i.e. the time you must have worked to be compensated – and the level of compensation. While emphasizing that “the three possibilities [étaient] open »he expressed his preference for a tightening of the affiliation condition.
“Stop the populist stigmatization of the unemployed”
The unions, which had fiercely fought the controversial reforms of 2019 and 2023, had called in advance in mid-March on the government to abandon a new reform, believing that it was necessary “stop the populist stigmatization of the unemployed”. “We cannot accept further reductions in rights after the rampage that has already taken place. And this announcement of recovery prepares a new rampage”Denis Gravouil, the CGT negotiator on unemployment insurance, told AFP.
The government “continues to serve us a fable that lowering unemployment insurance rights allows people to return to employment. It just allows them to push their heads underwater! »he thundered. “Being strong with the weak only lasts for a while”Jean-François Foucard (CFE-CGC) also reacted bitterly, adding that he was returning to the government “to assume the consequences on consumption and politics” reductions in rights planned for the unemployed. For Cyril Chabanier, president of the CFTC, this announcement is not a surprise. “Now we must participate in discussions on the new reform”he said.