Good news for job seekers. For the first time since the creation of the unemployment insurance system in 1958, the back-to-work allowance should experience two increases in the same year. In addition to the annual increase scheduled for 1er July, an exceptional revaluation of 1.9% was voted by the board of directors of Unédic, the joint association co-directed by the social partners which steers the scheme, on Friday 24 March. This should take place on 1er April, subject to the approval of a decree by the Council of State. In this case, the measure will affect approximately 1.7 million people, or 76% of recipients (those registered with Pôle Emploi for less than six months being excluded).
The revaluation represents an effort of around 600 million euros over 2023 and 2024. It follows a collective initiative by employee organizations to deal with inflation and soaring prices, in order to maintain power job seekers purchase. The government had accepted, ten days ago, that a revaluation of unemployment insurance benefits be applied “exceptionally” 1er april, “ in addition to the revaluation provided for in the law in force on 1er July of each year.
If the positions between representatives of employers and employees were relatively distant at the start, the vice-president (Medef) of Unédic, Jean-Eudes Tesson, is pleased that “The exchanges went well, without any tension”sign, according to him, that “Social democracy is doing well”. In charge of these files at Force Ouvrière, Michel Beaugas considers that it is a “Welcome upgrade, even if we wanted it to be bigger”. “It is good that this request was successful, given the context”, abounds Marylise Léon, of the CFDT. This exceptional revaluation “should be seen as a complement to the 2.9% increase of July 2022 and not as an advance of that of July 2023”, she says. The CGT however judged, in a press release, that this increase “insufficient” East “in total disconnection with the precariousness of jobless people”.
“I am at the disposal of the intersyndicale”
This gesture from the executive towards the unions may not be enough to get out of the sequence of social protest against the pension reform in which it is stuck. Especially since another institutional front is opening up. The trade unions on Friday filed appeals with the Council of State against the reform of unemployment insurance, which came into force on 1er February and which reduces the maximum duration of compensation for job seekers by 25%.
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