Unemployment insurance: consultation resumes on a reform undermined by the crisis - France 24

Paris (AFP)

The Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, meets Monday one to one union and employer leaders with the objective of reducing the differences on unemployment insurance to finally conclude this reform, still "priority" but which should only apply when the employment will improve.

Decided in July 2019 by the Philippe government after the failure of a social negotiation very supervised by the executive, the reform aimed to achieve savings of 1 to 1.3 billion per year, in particular by tightening the rules of compensation and by taxing the abusive use of short contracts.

But the brutality of the crisis forced the government to postpone its application, currently scheduled for April 1, and in November to propose adjustments to the four major contested parameters of the reform: conditions for entitlement to entitlement, method of calculating the tax. 'compensation, degression of the allowance and "bonus-malus" on company contributions.

Without illusion on the possibility of obtaining the adhesion of the five trade union organizations and three employers received throughout the day, the ministry nevertheless wants to discuss possible "avenues of convergence" before presenting its arbitrations at a current multilateral meeting. February.

Above all, as the health crisis continues and unemployment is expected to continue to increase in 2021, Ms. Borne intends to propose linking the entry into force of all or part of the new rules to the improvement of economic indicators to be discussed, such as job creation or the unemployment rate.

"The temporality of the reform with regard to the current and future economic situation is an essential point" of the discussions, we confirm to the ministry.

Politically, this would allow Emmanuel Macron to add to his record the achievement of this campaign commitment, while taking into account the context, while the resumption of the other great suspended social reform - that of pensions - will be more difficult.

On the employers' side, this idea is considered rather relevant.

For François Asselin (CPME), "the reform should be activated according to the evolution and the dynamics of job offers".

On the union side, this would not be enough to change the unanimous opposition to a reform "inherently erroneous" (Yves Veyrier, FO), which "must be canceled" (Philippe Martinez, CGT) or rewritten "from a blank sheet of paper. "(Laurent Berger, CFDT).

- Four disputed points -

None is satisfied with the arrangements mentioned at the last consultation meeting on November 12.

The executive proposed to go back on the passage from 4 to 6 months of work to obtain rights, but only for those under 26.

The degression of the allowance (for job seekers with a salary greater than 4,500 euros gross) would occur after eight months - instead of six in the initial project - and would affect fewer older unemployed people.

The most controversial point remains the new methods of calculating the allowance, the heart of the reform, which risks severely penalizing, according to Unédic, the "permittents", those often precarious who alternate unemployment and short contracts.

The executive defends an issue of "equity" because the current system is more favorable, for the same number of working hours, to those who have split contracts than to those who work continuously.

He also considers that this is not an incentive to resume sustainable employment.

This point was canceled at the end of November by the Council of State because it created "a clearly disproportionate difference in treatment" between beneficiaries.

To remedy this, Ms. Borne is working on a floor guaranteeing minimum remuneration for job seekers.

The employers continue to strongly contest the "absurd" introduction of a bonus-malus on the unemployment insurance contribution in seven sectors that are large consumers of short fixed-term contracts (accommodation and catering, agrifood, transport, plastics, etc.) , some of whom are hard hit by the crisis.

Ms. Borne assures that it is "really part of the balance of the reform, which must always dissuade employers from excessively resorting to short contracts".

In 2019, seven out of ten hires were on fixed-term contracts of less than a month, of which a third did not exceed one day.

Among the avenues of work are the tightening of the "mesh of the net" (to better target the sectors concerned) and the postponement of the entry into force (to the 2022 or 2023 contribution).

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