Posted Nov 9, 2022, 5:22 PMUpdated Nov 9, 2022, 5:51 PM
The case was closed in less than an hour. Meeting late Wednesday morning in a joint committee (CMP), senators and deputies found a compromise on the unemployment insurance reform project. The LR group in the Senate, which had hardened the text a lot, welcomed the fact that its firmness had “paid off” in the service of “work value”. But in the end, it was rather the majority who won the day, at the cost of a little ballast.
The ballast in question, which constituted the only hard point of the discussion, concerns the refusals of CDI. The right-wing senators had added an article abolishing the payment of unemployment benefits after three refusals to convert his CDD into CDI (under equivalent conditions). Ditto after a refusal following an interim mission.
Gaz factory
By risk of breaking the principle of equality, it was finally agreed to reduce the number of refusals to 2 in both cases. “When a job is available and likely to be occupied, there is no reason to put national solidarity at stake,” argued the right-wing senators, defending an anti “abuse” measure at a time when “ many professions are in tension”.
Without denying the problem, the rapporteur of the bill in the Assembly, the deputy Renaissance Marc Ferracci, considers that the measure is too complex, an argument behind which the LR deputies had lined up. Not only will the employer have to notify Pôle emploi of the CDI refusals, but in addition the operator’s agents will have to check the compatibility of the refusals with the reasonable job offers that the unemployed person must already accept under penalty of sanction.
Clearly, what appears to be a totem for LR senators risks turning into a little applied gas plant. Letting go on this point was therefore not a big sacrifice for the majority to preserve what is essential in their eyes. First of all, there is the bonus-malus, ie the modulation of employer unemployment contributions according to the rate of use of short-term contracts. The LR senators had emptied it of its substance, taking up a request from employers. He has fully recovered.
The majority also accepted that the bill acts the opening in 2023 of an interprofessional negotiation on the governance of Unédic, but this only registers in the hard a promise of the Minister of Labor.
The guidance document for the social partners will focus in particular on the financial balance of the scheme, which is obvious. It will also focus on whether or not to maintain a framework document, as imposed since the 2018 law when it comes to modifying the rules of compensation. Knowing that unions and employers are opposed to it, the answer leaves little doubt.
VAE reform
Finally, LR senators wanted to bring forward to August 31, 2023 the deadline for the period during which the government is authorized to modify the compensation rules by decree (it wants to change them according to the situation). The date of December 31, 2023 has been reinstated, to allow the smooth running of negotiations on the governance of Unédic.
For the rest, the bill resulting from the CMP maintains the reform of the VAE, the presumption of resignation in the event of abandonment of post, or the extension of the experimentation of fixed-term contracts for multiple replacements. It will be definitively voted on in the Assembly on November 15 and in the Senate two days later.