The reform of the wage guarantee scheme still stuck

Tension is mounting between the employers and several unions. At the origin of their disagreements, there is the future of the wage guarantee scheme – a little-known but essential device since it is this which ensures the remuneration of staff working in failing companies. Tuesday, November 23, the social partners were to vote on a text that fundamentally transforms the functioning of this body. But the vote did not take place, because the CFE-CGC, the CFTC, the CGT and FO, who are against the project, united so that there is no quorum, thus blocking any deliberation.

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The wage guarantee scheme is a separate object in our social protection system. Its governance is ensured by the “AGS association”, in which sit exclusively representatives of employers’ movements, including Medef and the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CPME). Concrete operations are entrusted to another entity: the Unédic AGS delegation (DUA), which is an “establishment” of Unédic, the association responsible for managing unemployment insurance. The activity of the delegation obeys a “management convention” signed by the managers of the employers’ association AGS and by the managers of Unédic – which is a joint structure, administered by organizations of employers and employees.

A “black box” in the hands of employers

Such a device can hardly be cited as an example for its simplicity. The Court of Auditors has also pointed out: in a report submitted in 2019, it recommended “A clarification of roles” of each protagonist. The unions, for their part, have been expressing another grievance for years: the wage guarantee scheme is a ” Black Box “, entirely in the hands of the employers.

In 2019, the delegation was plunged into turmoil, following suspicions of embezzlement involving several of its executives. Complaints for “breach of trust” and “active and passive corruption” have been lodged.

Read also Suspicion of embezzlement within the wage guarantee scheme

It is in this context that the employers’ organizations, at the head of the AGS, denounced, in 2019, the “Management agreement” laying down the rules for delegation. Long discussions began between union representatives and employers. After many rewrites, a draft text was put together. In particular, it provides for the transfer of staff from the Delegation to the AGS association.

This document, which should have been examined Tuesday during a board of directors of Unédic, could not be, because of the hostility of four confederations. They presented their arguments during a joint speech in front of the Maison de la Mutualité, in Paris, where the meeting was scheduled.

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