While the deputies are preparing to vote on a bill which toughens the rules of unemployment insurance, the government is considering new measures on the operation of the system. In an interview at Sunday newspaper (JDD) of October 9, the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt, evokes several avenues whose aim is to keep in activity workers aged around sixty. One of the hypotheses being studied could consist in reducing the duration of compensation for unemployed seniors, which, at present, is extended.
Mr. Dussopt made these remarks just before the opening of the first “consultation cycle” on pension reform. From Tuesday, the Ministry of Labor receives union and employer representatives to work on “the employment of seniors and the prevention of occupational wear and tear”. A major issue in France, since the proportion of 60-64 year olds with a job is low: 32.7% in 2019, compared to 70% in Sweden and 61.8% in Germany.
“Our poor results can be explained by several causes”confides Mr. Dussopt to the JDD. The Minister cites in particular “devices which can be perceived as encouragement, for employers, to separate themselves from seniors”. It’s the case, ” for example “the maximum duration of unemployment compensation, which, from the age of 55, increases to thirty-six months, against thirty months for people aged 53 and 54, and twenty-four months for the others. “While it is legitimate to have specific rules, this perspective can be seen as a way of shedding”, he observes. Implicitly, Mr. Dussopt thus suggests that it could be relevant to put an end to the derogatory system from which the oldest job seekers benefit.
“The method is wrong”
Other options are put forward, in particular the possibility, for “a senior who accepts a less well-paid job, to keep part of his unemployment benefit in order to compensate for the loss of earnings” compared to its previous activity. The minister mentions another incentive, this time intended for the bosses: the “exemptions from social security contributions” for hiring women and men at the end of their careers.
At Mr. Dussopt’s office, it is said that the discussions on compensation for people who are at least 55 years old “are not, a priori, provided for in the unemployment insurance bill”. This text, which notably sets stricter rules for employees leaving their posts, must be adopted on Tuesday, October 11, at first reading in the National Assembly.
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