The government will set new compensation rules for job seekers from July 1, taking note of the “disagreement” between the social partners, according to a press release Monday from the Ministry of Labor. The executive will issue “a deficiency decree” which will “aim to contribute to the achievement of full employment and to promote the rapid return to employment of unemployed people receiving compensation”, indicates the press release. As in 2019, employers and unions are once again losing control over the definition of these rules to the benefit of the executive.
The ministry recalls that “the social partners did not manage to find an agreement in the negotiation relating to the Life at Work Pact, which concerned the employment of seniors, professional retraining and the universal time savings account (Cetu)” engaged since December. He adds that “the outcome of this negotiation conditioned the entry into force” of the November unemployment insurance agreement, “in order to make it compatible with the summer 2023 framework document” which provided for savings on compensation for senior jobseekers.
Tightening of the rules
Unemployment insurance was governed by a deficiency decree which expired at the end of 2023, but whose validity was extended by six months by a “joining” decree until June 30. Without waiting for the outcome of discussions on senior employment, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced in January that he wanted to “go further in the reform of unemployment insurance”.
Last week, he recalled three levers to tighten the rules: the duration of compensation, the affiliation condition, i.e. the time you must have worked to be compensated, and the level of this compensation. While emphasizing that “the three possibilities [étaient] open”, he had expressed his preference for a tightening of the affiliation condition.
The unions, which had fiercely fought the controversial reforms of 2019 and 2023, had called in advance on the government in mid-March to abandon a new reform, believing that it was necessary to “stop the populist stigmatization of the unemployed”.