To encourage people to return to work, the government intends to reduce the period of compensation by 25%
The government will try to defend its project until the end in the bilateral meetings that ended on Friday evening. Unsuccessful. Unity protest is common. On Monday morning, Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt will detail the new rules for unemployment insurance compensation to the social partners. Certainly, in an icy atmosphere, four days after the adoption of the law ” functioning of the labor market with the goal of full employmentempowers the executive power to make changes in the system by decree.
If there were consultations, they were very limited, the government wanted to define a new architecture, taking into account the vagaries of the economic situation. ” Discuss cursor and comma, this is not satisfactory“, CFDT Deputy General Secretary Merylise Léon regrets. Thus, the system will be more generous when the labor market is bad. But less protective when it is good. To measure the temperature and determine whether to withdraw the umbrella, the State will rely on the unemployment rate determined by the International Labor Office.
“It’s going to hurt, really bad”
The decree should be published soon. And with the new rules of the game coming into force in February, it’s time for Pôle emploi to update its procedures. All those who lose their jobs involuntarily, such as in the event of economic downsizing, will be registered at the end of winter. “This will be very badMarylise Léon predicts. In order to encourage the recovery of employment when the economic situation is good and to combat the shortage of personnel, the government decided to reduce the compensation period by introducing a huge reduction factor. Today, this period is defined as a maximum of 24 months up to the age of 53, 30 months between the ages of 53-54, and 36 months after the age of 55. If the labor market is dynamic, these thresholds will increase for all new arrivals starting in February.
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The reduction factor will automatically apply to all job seekers. The two-year benefit band will be reduced to 18 months, that is, it will be reduced by two quarters…”Unemployment insurance is insurance against the risk of losing a job, and everyone should be compensatedRecalls Pierre Garnodier, general secretary of the CGT’s National Committee of the Unemployed and Insecure Workers (CNTPEP).There will be almost no temporary workers and seasonal workers. During an economic storm, this limit will be increased to 24 months. But no more, the government has promised more generous rules if the situation worsens. “This is intellectual fraud: 18 months will become the rule of thumb“, Jean-Francois Foucard, national secretary of the CFE-CGC, plague. “It is a punishment for everyone when the economic situation starts to deteriorate from 2023», cries CFDT’s Merylise Léon.
Example: an employee who has worked for twelve months in the last two years will only benefit from nine months of benefits. And twelve – like today – only if the market turns. After registration, he will be notified of these two cursors in the letter sent by Pôle emploi. However, the government has promised that regardless of the state of the labor market, benefits will never be reduced once they start: an unemployed person covered for 16 months will not see their entitlements drop to 12 if the unemployment rate falls. “They want to avoid recalculated management“says a Union source.
A heavy blow for the elderly and long-term compensation recipients
The main victims of this turn of the screw: those who can claim compensation for a long time because they hold a stable job. And seniors who lose comprehensive coverage. Previously they were protected for three years, they can only be so for 27 months, the reduction factor applies to the 36 months they benefit from. “It’s tough“, an employer negotiator still agrees favorable to reform. Currently, one in two long-term unemployed people is over 55, and only 56.1% of 55-64-year-olds are employed in the fourth quarter of 2021. But for the government, older workers encouraging work is an essential condition for the success of the pension reform, which plans to raise the retirement age from summer to 64, even 65. Unions point to the danger of falling into the social minimum because they cannot find work themselves.
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The conditions for entering the plan – six months of work in two years – do not move. Finally, job seekers who collect less than six months of compensation are excluded from this tightening of the rules. As well as intermittent workers, fishermen, dock workers and Ultramarines. Reason ? “Very high social risk“, according to the explanations given to the social partners. For others, especially in Pôle emploi agencies, this dry diet can lead to fever outbreaks.
