The Ministry of Labor sent the social partners on Friday the draft decree on the reduction of the duration of compensation for job seekers. It introduces a scenario providing to decrease by 40 % – and no longer 25 % – the number of days during which a person is covered.
by Thibaud Métais and Bertrand Bissuel
We must always follow the development of regulatory measures to the end: the final version sometimes reserves some surprises. Demonstration has just been brought with the draft decree on unemployment insurance reform, which was sent to the social partners on Friday, December 23. Revealed by the AEF specialized news agency, the text introduces a new scenario, consisting in reducing the compensation duration by 40 % when the unemployment rate goes below 6 %.
Unions are in black anger, because of the content as well as the method: they assure that the government had not spoken to them upstream of this addition, making it possible to harden the provisions applicable to job seekers a little more .
The draft decree in question is linked to the law on the “functioning of the labor market”, which was published on Thursday in the Official Journal . The text plans to modulate the number of days during which a job seeker receives an allowance, depending on the economic situation. This idea of ”contractacyclicity” corresponds to a campaign promise by Emmanuel Macron.
in force until December 31, 2023
Today, a person deprived of activity can be covered, at most, for twenty-four months if they are less than 53 years old, thirty months if it is 53 or 54 years old, and thirty-six months for others. From the 1 er February 2023, any unemployed will be subject to a “reducing coefficient” of 0.75, which will have the effect of amputating the duration of compensation by 25 %. Example: an individual, who would have been entitled to twelve months of service under the current system, will be supported for nine months.
This modulation plays taking into account the state of health of the job market. To be able to assess it, the executive has retained as an indicator the unemployment rate: if it is less than 9 % as is the case at the moment – at 7.3 % -, the reducing coefficient applies. If the situation deteriorates, with an unemployment rate above 9 % or up 0.8 points over a quarter, the duration of compensation will return to today.
These rules will not remain in force until December 31, 2023. By then, the employers and the unions will be led to negotiate new ones, within the framework of an “convention”. However, the contracyclicity mechanism must be maintained, as Olivier Dussopt, the Minister of Labor, said at a press conference he gave on November 21. He added that, on the occasion of these discussions between social partners, it will be “possible to consider” cases of additional figures, even “to harden things” if the “objective of full employment, at 5 % unemployment is reached “. But he did not give more details.
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