The deputies validated this reform carried out by the Minister of Labour. The Senate is expected to follow Thursday.
Will France experience full employment again by 2027? The objective remains “attainable”hammered Monday the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, despite poor growth prospects in France. To achieve this, the government is banking heavily on its unemployment insurance reform.
This is in the process of being definitively adopted this week, after its approval at first reading by the National Assembly in October, then by a joint committee last week. Tuesday, at the end of the day, the deputies voted in favor of this text, with 210 votes against 140, in spite of the opposition of the elected representatives of the left as of the RN. Unless there is an exceptional turnaround in the situation, the support that the right agrees to bring to the presidential majority should allow the bill to be ratified in the Senate on Thursday.
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The text includes several major changes. As it stands, the first article offers the government the possibility of modifying the rules of unemployment insurance. The principle of countercyclicality dear to Emmanuel Macron will therefore be implemented by decree. The terms of compensation will be adjusted according to the situation on the job market:Stricter when too many jobs are unfilled, more generous when unemployment is highsummed up the head of state.
Among the levers that could be activated are the duration of the compensation and the conditions of entitlement. The government decree will detail the operation of this modulation, which has been the subject of consultation with the social partners since mid-October. The text emphasizes the participation of unions in the governance of unemployment insurance.
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The hunt for voluntary job deprivation
Another great novelty that appears in the bill: the requalification of job abandonment. Until now, the dismissal of an employee who is absent for a prolonged or repeated period during his working hours without this being justified did not prevent this employee from receiving unemployment compensation. But, by requalifying this dismissal as a resignation, the legislative text provides for denying him the rights to unemployment insurance. “The employee who has voluntarily abandoned his position and does not return to work after being given formal notice (…) is presumed to have resigned”is it written in article 1 bis.
The employee who contests the decision of his employer is encouraged to seize the prud’hommes, who will have to “decide on the merits within one month”. This measure aroused the ire of the left in Parliament. The NUPES deputies consider that the cases of job abandonment are “marginal” and don’t deserve“weakening the protection of employees”.
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Same antagonism on the left on another article of the bill, added by right-wing senators and kept by the government which had nevertheless shown signs of disapproval. This withdraws the rights to unemployment insurance from an employee on temporary work or on a fixed-term contract (CDD) who refuses twice in one year a permanent contract (CDI) offered by his employer for the same position. , the same place and with the same remuneration. “In the event of the employee’s refusal, the employer informs Pôle emploi, justifying the similar nature of the job offered”says the bill.
Concretely, an employee on a short contract who twice refuses a CDI would be refused unemployment compensation at the end of his contract. The spirit of these measures is to “to refuse compensation (to) job seekers who are not in a situation of involuntary deprivation of employment”summarizes the rapporteur Marc Ferracci, deputy of the majority.
Other provisions of the bill have been less talked about. In particular the creation of a public service for the validation of prior learning, in charge of organizing certifications based on professional and personal experience (in the absence of diplomas). This public interest grouping will have to take into account “qualification needs according to the territories”. The government has also succeeded in maintaining the extension of the bonus-malus system on the employer’s contribution to unemployment insurance, which aims to penalize companies that make massive use of short contracts.