According to the CFDT, nearly 40,000 job seekers have mistakenly received a bonus of 900 euros dedicated to "permittent" workers.

While verifications are still underway, the unions ask Pôle emploi to be lenient and plead not to make up for the sums overpaid.

The unions evoke "technical dysfunction", noted in early February.

40,000 job seekers would have received, wrongly, a bonus intended for "permittents".

This aid, for a maximum amount of 900 euros, concerns workers who have alternated periods of employment and unemployment in 2019 in order to guarantee them a stable monthly income during this period of crisis. 

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The aid is paid automatically by Pôle Emploi.

But some "permittents" received the bonus when they were not entitled to it and others received nothing when they could claim it. 

Unions call for leniency

Certain regional offices of Pôle Emploi therefore asked the advisers to recover the sums paid in error.

But the unions are calling for leniency.

"The fear, obviously, is to have to manage the situations of tension of job seekers who would be in a fairly legitimate state of anger", explains to Europe 1 David Vallaperta, CFDT representative at the CSE of Pôle Emploi.

"So, the CFDT pleads not to make up for the sums too perceived which were applied to the job seekers."

Contacted by Europe 1, Pôle emploi indicates that 682,000 premiums have already been paid.

But the organization does not confirm the figure of 40,000 overpayments, and indicates that verifications are still underway.

Due to a time lag in the sending of documents, certain files, considered today as overpayments, could finally be eligible for the bonus.

The Pôle Emploi unions have asked the Ministry of Labor to take action by canceling reimbursement requests.