New unemployment insurance rules: Executives in the government’s sights ?

La ministre du Travail Catherine Vautrin et le Premier Ministre Gabriel Attal planchent sur la réforme de l'assurance chômage. MAXPPP – Vincent Isore

Selon nos confrères du Parisien, le projet de Gabriel Attal et de sa ministre du Travail Catherine Vautrin, pour réduire le coût de l’assurance chômage, serait de jouer sur le différé d’indemnisation spécifique. Explications.

Since the failure of negotiations at the beginning of April between unions and employers on seniors and unemployment insurance, the government has regained control. Gabriel Attal's entourage has warned: it is the government which will decide alone on the new compensation rules, which will apply from July 1 for the 2.6 million unemployed.

Savings, full employment…

The objective is in particular to make savings, according to the doctrine of the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who calls for reducing the country's deficit. Another argument put forward by the executive: tightening the screws to encourage the unemployed to return to work more quickly and thus promote full employment.

An indiscretion of the CGT

Since this announcement by the Prime Minister, we knew several options were on the table (reduction of the duration of compensation today to 18 months, tightening of the duration necessary to benefit from unemployment insurance). ;hellip;), but nothing had really filtered through about the government’s intentions. Our colleagues from Le Parisien, this weekend, finally revealed a clue, uncovered by the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet, after a meeting with the Minister of Labor Catherine Vautrin.

A longer time to collect unemployment insurance

"She only mentioned to us the idea of ​​deferred specific compensation, indicating that she preferred this measure aimed mainly at executives , to that of a tightening of the duration of affiliation, indicated Ms. Binet to our colleagues. Concretely, when an employee is dismissed or leaves the company following a conventional termination, compensation does not begin at the end of the contract. According to the rules for deferred compensation, he can wait several weeks, or even several months, to receive his unemployment insurance. "This period is calculated according to the amount received as a transaction or when the termination compensation is greater than the legal or conventional minimum", recalls Le Parisien.

It is therefore this waiting period, capped today at six months, which could be re-evaluated beyond that and thus allow unemployment insurance to make savings important. An advantage for the executive, it would show that it is targeting the most well-off.

Other tracks?

Other decisions are however also on the table, such as the reduction in unemployment benefits which, until now, only concerned former employees who received more than 4,500 € per month.

Our colleagues from Le Parisien also specify that the government is not planning new discussions with the unions, but only a meeting, during May, to present to them the draft decree… for simple opinion.