EDITORIAL
The unemployment insurance reform came into force. Before the second wave of the reform on the method of calculation of the indemnities, on April 1st, 2020, our columnist Nicolas Beytout makes the turn of these changes, and their consequences.
"Firstly, the duration required to be compensated by Pôle Emploi: it will be necessary to have worked 6 months in the 24 months preceding the entry to unemployment, and no longer, as until then, 4 months in the last 28 Second turn of the screw, tighter rules to reload one's rights when one resumes work after the end of his compensation period.
In concrete terms, all those who, within an hour, will push the door of Pôle Emploi to register for unemployment, as those who have registered online since Friday will be covered by the new compensation scheme. A very different regime: degressive allowances for executives after six months, lengthening the period of work required to open the right to compensation, modification and narrowing of the basis for calculating allowances, the changes are many, and all go into the meaning of a hardening.
Hardening decried by the unions, sometimes with very harsh words. As for the employers, it rejected the principle of the bonus-malus which will be implemented at the same time for short-term contracts and fixed-term contracts. As a result, the social partners have been forced to reform. This is also a turning point in the French social model: this time, and for the first time in 60 years, the state has clearly regained control of an unemployment insurance system already living under the supervision and sometimes even under the rule of the government.
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A considerable change of substance
But that will not change much in the operation of the unemployment insurance system. And at least we will avoid the endless negotiations between the social partners, which, once an agreement was signed, were very often contradicted or corrected by the government. But beware, if the actual functioning of unemployment insurance is not upset, the reform is on the other hand a substantial change in substance. The tightening of unemployment benefits represents a clear political choice: to make the replacement income of an unemployed person less generous in order to encourage him to return to work more quickly.
It is the whole relation to work that is concerned by this reform. This is in a way the act II of the great flattening of the report to work announced by Emmanuel Macron during his election campaign. Act I was (2 years ago) social orders, the easing of social constraints in companies, and the simplification of dismissal procedures in order to unlock the fear of hiring bosses (especially in small business). And now, Act II with the reform of unemployment insurance, the goal is to encourage everyone to get out of Pôle Emploi quickly. It is a very good reform, very consistent, because it puts work back at the center of concern. Although obviously, this restriction of social rights is poorly lived.
If there is an injustice, it is because the degressivity of the unemployment benefits will only play for managers. If the government made sense, as unemployment declines, it should be extended to all jobseekers. Guaranteed effect on the number of unemployed, this French curse ".