Tribune. Unemployment insurance played a vital role during this crisis in protecting households. The exceptional coverage of this regime in France should not, however, make people forget its abuses. Thanks to the successive reforms desired by the social partners, the regime has also become a machine for manufacturing insecurity, a source of unemployment and almost permanent deficits.
The introduction of the reduced activity system makes it possible to work while being compensated. Associated with the opening of rights from four months of work, with the rule of “1 day worked 1 day compensated”, with the introduction of the reloading of rights as soon as one resumes a job, as well as a method of calculation from the very favorable allocation to short contracts, this system has encouraged the explosion of precarious jobs.
It is now possible to earn almost as much by working half the days in the month as by working full time, and that without time limit. Employers know this and have no restraint in offering this type of contract. For ten years, the number of fixed-term contracts of less than a month has increased by 150%! It is now used ten times more than in Germany and five times more than in Denmark.
Compensation that better reflects the amount of work
The fiercely contested government reform aims to curb this costly and unfair runaway. The current system violates a fundamental rule which says that one does not earn more by unemployment than by working. The allowance paid in a given month is currently calculated on the basis of the days worked alone, so that it is possible to receive at the end of the month an allowance two to three times higher than his former salary, provided that no accept only short contracts!
Take a person working part-time on a CDI for a year, and another working 15 days a month on a short CDD for a year. In these two configurations, the work quota is the same. Once unemployed, the monthly allowance is 64% of the previous monthly salary for the part-time person but increases to 128% – double – in the case of intermittent CDD. And the increase in income upon entering unemployment can be even greater for shorter contract durations.
The reform aims to institute compensation that better reflects the working rate and the previous income of unemployment insurance recipients. To this end, all days, including those not worked, are now taken into account, up to a minimum limit, in order to define a comparable average labor income for all. With this method, the amount of the allowances becomes identical in the two cases mentioned above.
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