Setback for the government: the Council of State on Tuesday suspended the controversial reform of unemployment insurance which was to come into force from July 1, the unions hailing a “victory” where the Minister of Labor points to a simple question of “Temporality”.
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AFP
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Seized by the unions, opposed from the start to this reform which they deem penalizing for job seekers, the summary judge of the highest administrative court suspended the rules for calculating the amount of unemployment benefit that were to enter into effect in ten days, according to an order made public Tuesday.
“The uncertainties about the economic situation do not allow the new rules to be put in place” on 1 July, “which are supposed to promote job stability by making unemployment compensation less favorable for employees who have alternated short contracts and inactivity . On the other hand, the judge does not call into question the principle of the reform itself ”, indicates the Council of State in a press release.
“After this order issued urgently, the ‘substantive’ appeals of the unions against the decree reforming unemployment insurance will be judged by the Council of State within a few months,” said the highest court of the administrative order.
For the Minister of Labor Élisabeth Borne, “The Council of State asks us to wait a little longer” and “only censors the date of entry into force” of reform.
“It is therefore the temporality which is ultimately censored”, the Council “considering that it is necessary to have more visibility on the economic situation”, she told AFP.
“We have arrangements to make for what happens on July 1 and we will look precisely at how we integrate the observations of the Council of State. We take into account all the elements that we may have on the economic situation and the job market. From there, we will act to allow the fastest (possible) application of the reform, ”she continued.
Decided in July 2019 in a then dynamic labor market, the reform had already been suspended several times by the government in light of the Covid-19 crisis and was amended in view of the context.
“A disavowal”
The unions have been head-on opposed from the outset to this reform which they consider penalizing for job seekers, especially the most precarious.
All the major power plants had filed appeals against the decree of March 30 which reformed the rules for compensating job seekers in May, with the exception of the CFTC which, while being opposed to the reform, had considered that there was no “legal basis”.
Before the Council of State on June 10, the unions had pleaded “serious and immediate effects” to obtain the suspension, during a hearing of more than three hours where the government had often found itself on the defensive in the face of a “dubious” summary judge.
As soon as the suspension was announced, they congratulated each other.
“It’s a victory for job seekers, who would have been severely punished by this reform,” tweeted CFDT secretary general Laurent Berger. For the central, “this suspension sounds like a disavowal for a poorly calibrated reform”.
For FO, Michel Beaugas saw “a new setback for the government”, while Laurent Escure (Unsa) welcomed “good news for workers” and Solidaires noted “a defeat for this antisocial government”.
The unions mainly attack the flagship measure of the reform: the new method of calculating the daily reference wage (SJR), the basis of the allowance. This new method will penalize job seekers alternating unemployment and activity, “the permittents”.
The executive defends an “equity issue”, the current system being more favorable to those who alternate short contracts and inactivity than to those who work continuously.
According to an assessment by Unédic carried out in the spring, up to 1.15 million people opening rights in the year following July 1 would have received a lower monthly allowance (by 17% on average), with at the same time a Extended “theoretical duration of compensation” (14 months on average compared to 11 before the reform).
