Unemployment insurance: after a failure of negotiations, the government will set new rules by July 1

Le gouvernement, qui veut durcir les règles d’indemnisation pour inciter à la reprise d’activité, n’a pas encore précisé ce qui allait changer. MAXPPP – Thomas Padilla

Le gouvernement reprend la main et fixera lui-même de nouvelles règles d’indemnisation pour les demandeurs d’emploi, qui devraient être plus restrictives, à partir du 1er juillet.

End of suspense over unemployment insurance. The government justifies this decision by the failure, almost two weeks ago, of negotiations between employers and unions on life at work and the employment of seniors. He "regrets this disagreement and takes note of it", according to a press release from the Ministry of Labor.

The government, which wants to tighten compensation rules to encourage the resumption of activity, has not yet specified what would change, but it has ;have already decided on the method.

Extended by a "joining decree"

The executive will take "a deficiency decree" by June 30, which will have "the objective of helping to achieve full employment and promoting the rapid return to employment of unemployed people receiving compensation". As in 2019, employers and unions are once again losing control over the definition of these rules to the benefit of the executive.

The current unemployment insurance rules expired in principle at the end of 2023 but had been extended by a "joining decree" until June 30.

The employers and three unions (CFDT, FO, CFTC) reached, after difficult negotiations, an agreement on November 10 on the compensation rules. But they had left the question of compensation for seniors unresolved, in order to negotiate first on their working conditions and continued employment.

These negotiations reached an impasse on April 10, with employers refusing to make new binding commitments while the unions wanted to obtain new rights for employees.

Concertations in the coming weeks

However, the unemployment insurance agreement could not be completed in the absence of an agreement on the employment of seniors.

The resumption of the definition of the rules will be done after "a consultation" with the social partners but there will be no new framework letter asking them to negotiate again, a ministerial advisor explained to AFP. These consultations should begin "in the coming weeks", according to the Ministry of Labor.

In addition, the government "welcomes with interest" the discussions on the universal time savings account (Cetu) and professional retraining which must conclude on Tuesday between an employers' organization, the U2P (craftsmen, traders and liberal professions) and unions, indicated the ministerial advisor. But he does not plan to resume the agreement in full.

No track consolidated at the moment

As early as January and without waiting for the outcome of negotiations on the employment of seniors, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced that he wanted "to go further in the reform of unemployment insurance".

Last week, he recalled three levers to tighten the rules: the duration of compensation, the condition of affiliation, i.e. the time that one must have worked to be compensated, and the level of this compensation. While emphasizing that "the three possibilities [were] open", he expressed his preference for a toughening of the condition of ’ affiliation.

"No lead has yet been consolidated", underlined the ministerial advisor .

In front of the elected representatives of the majority, for some worried, Gabriel Attal argued that the measure had the broad support of the electorate of the majority – supporting surveys.