The “labour market” bill, adopted Thursday by Parliament, triggers the possibility, by decree, of modulating certain rules, the idea of the executive being that unemployment insurance be “stricter when too many jobs are unfilled, more generous when unemployment is high”.
Despite the opposition of all the unions to the very idea of this modulation, denouncing an “unfair” and “ineffective” reform, the text provided for consultation, launched in October.
During a last multilateral meeting with the social partners on Monday morning, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt will make known “the arbitrations selected”. Against a background of anger over purchasing power, the government ruled out from the outset to touch the level of compensation.
The Minister of Labor also assured that he would not affect the conditions of access to unemployment insurance, ie the fact of having worked six months over a reference period of 24 months. “We are not going to compensate less, we are going to work on the duration of compensation”, maintaining “a floor”, confirmed Mr. Dussopt on Sunday in the program Le grand rendez-vous Cnews / LesEchos / Europe 1.
According to several union and employer negotiators who had bilateral discussions this week with his cabinet, the Minister will announce that beyond a minimum floor of 6 months, the duration of compensation will be modulated according to the evolution of the rate unemployment for all people who have had their contract terminated after February 1, 2023.
When the labor market situation is considered good, the duration of compensation will be reduced by a coefficient to be announced on Monday, probably between 0.75 and 0.9, according to these sources. According to the Sunday newspaper, it is the rate of 75% which would have been chosen, which therefore means that a duration of compensation of 24 months would be reduced to 18 months.
The way to assess the unemployment rate – threshold, dynamic – will be specified on Monday, but if unemployment remains around its current level, i.e. 7.3-7.4% since the start of the year, the reduction in the duration will apply, according to these sources.
The executive insists that there is urgency in the face of the recruitment difficulties of companies, and makes this reform a first stone of its strategy to achieve full employment in 2027, i.e. an unemployment rate of around 5% against 7, 4% currently. A goal that the minister considers “always achievable”.
