Unemployment insurance: Parliament to pave the way for new reform

Unemployment insurance rules are about to change. The senators are due to ratify this Thursday at the end of the morning by a final vote of the compromise reached with the deputies on the government bill. This did not have to resort to the constitutional weapon 49.3 thanks to the agreement reached with the right.

The text by Labor Minister Olivier Dussaud initially plans to extend the current unemployment insurance rules that emerged from Macron’s controversial reform of the first five-year period. The decree on this was adopted in advance, at the end of October. According to Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise, it also provides the opportunity to modulate certain rules by decree to be “stricter when too many vacancies are not filled and more generous when unemployment is high.”

Arbitrations announced November 21

Consultations are under way with the social partners, and on November 21 the government will announce “arbitration awards” for the application of the modulation in early 2023. “We are working on modulating the maximum duration of compensation”, currently 24 to 36 months depending on age, Olivier Dussault told deputies on Tuesday. Thus, “we do not plan to change the conditions for joining the unemployment insurance system.”

To be eligible, six months of work is required within a base period of 24 months. The chief executive insists that in the face of companies’ recruitment difficulties, there is an urgent need, and makes this reform the first stone of his strategy to achieve full employment in 2027, that is, an unemployment rate of about 5% versus 7.4% currently.

Deputies and senators reached a compromise on this text of the law in a joint commission last week, but at the cost of toughening introduced by the senators of the Republic of Latvia, against which the minister initially opposed.

At the same time, it was added that the refusal of the ICD twice within one year after the ICD or a temporary contract for the same position, the same place and with the same pay will lead to the loss of unemployment benefits. According to Olivier Dusseau, the employer (or both employers) will have to inform Pôle emploi, which presents a “technical difficulty”, so that it is not a “gasworks”.

“The government didn’t want it, but we didn’t bend,” said Senate text rapporteur Frederic Puissa (LR). His Assembly colleague Marc Ferracci (Renaissance) finds the measure “little effective and legally fragile” and sees it as “a somewhat ideological approach, even if there is a real topic of abandoning the CDI”.

Left criticizes “right-wing reform”

Another provision, supplemented by amendments from the presidential majority and deputies of the Republic of Lithuania, is still being discussed: “leaving the post” will now be equated with resignation in order to limit access to unemployment insurance. Right-wing elected officials “have been a force for proposal both in the Assembly and in the Senate,” welcomes LR MP Stefan Viry, who, however, believes that the bill “does not exhaust” the reforms that need to be carried out.

In unison with the unions, the left criticizes “right-wing reform” whose goal would be to “reduce unemployment benefits.” Before Tuesday’s final vote in the Assembly, by 210 to 140, Insoumis defended in vain the latest motion to reject the text, which they said carried “a one-time staff vision.” The Socialists announced the transfer to the Constitutional Council. MPs also voted against the bill, according to which, according to them, “punishment and guilt are in the order of things.”

The bill also notes the opening of a consultation office on managing unemployment insurance. According to Delegate Minister Carol Grandjean, another component is programming a “drastic simplification” of the Validation of Experiences (VAE).