En announcing, Wednesday March 27, at the end of a government seminar devoted to the theme of work, a third reform in three years of unemployment insurance, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, knew that he was going to take front the social partners. Certainly, the forms are respected: the government will let the employers and the unions complete their negotiations on the employment of seniors, which include a section on compensation for those over 55. The discussions which were to end on Wednesday were extended until April 8 at their request. But Gabriel Attal was sufficiently explicit about his projects to show that the State intends to regain control of the management of unemployment insurance.
While public deficits are spiraling due to the economic slowdown, the State is seeking to make several billion euros in savings on the unemployment compensation system. Three avenues are being studied: reducing the duration of compensation, currently eighteen months, reviewing the period of work giving entitlement to compensation and reducing the level of compensation.
The first two are preferred, the Prime Minister specifying that the duration of compensation would not be less than twelve months. These announcements provoked a barrage from the unions. Given the current surpluses of the system, they had agreed with the bosses on a reduction in their contributions and on an improvement in access to unemployment insurance for first-time entrants to the labor market. These developments are considered inappropriate by the government.
The government withdraws
The State’s desire to regain control over the unemployment insurance system has been in the making since 2017. The switch from employee contributions to the generalized social contribution, the objective of putting an end to mass unemployment have led the government to be increasingly directive in moving towards full employment and making Unédic one of the instruments of its policy, alongside the reform of France Travail and the development of professional training. This strategy could only lead to a confrontation with the social partners. Unions and employers remain committed to protecting the unemployed and defending the interests of businesses, where the government places a rapid return to employment as the main condition for maintaining the welfare state.
The new avenues outlined by Gabriel Attal, which should come into force by regulation in the fall, will take a heavy toll on the unemployed. It will be felt all the more harshly because it is taking place when the economy is not good and unemployment has started to increase again.
Shaken by the scale of the deficits, the government is withdrawing on this subject, since it had promised in 2023 to link the tightening of the compensation system to the improvement of the job market. His haste to initiate a new reform is all the more questionable since he did not take the time to evaluate the impact of the two previous ones to correct their harmful effects. His initiative will be interpreted as a blow to the most precarious in the name of the guarantee he was supposed to give to the financial rating agencies. After the opposition on pension reform, the divorce with the unions is all the more meaningful.