The Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne, presents the consultation of this Tuesday morning with the social partners as the last before the publication, already postponed three times, decrees that reform unemployment insurance from this summer, in application of the law of September 5, 2018.
The Head of State could thus claim to have, as promised during the presidential campaign, reformed unemployment insurance, failing to do so for pensions.
Among the measures planned, an increase – except for young people – in the number of months of work required to claim compensation (six months out of the last twenty-four months, against four months out of the last twenty-eight currently), a revision with the reduction in the calculation of the compensation, the degression from the seventh month for the highest salaries. Added to this is the taxation of short contracts, which the workers ‘unions are in favor of, but not the three employers’ organizations. Problem for the Minister, these last two measures were retoquées by the Council of State.
Compromise vs. refusal
Élisabeth Borne declared herself ready to compromise on Sunday. The extension of the contribution period opening the rights and the degression of the allowance would only apply when the labor market improves.
This should not be enough for the five wage centers (CGT, CFDT, CFE-CGC, FO, CFTC) which have, rare thing, requested in a joint letter on February 23, that the reform is simply abandoned, because of the crisis.
Bypassing the prerogatives of the social partners, co-managers of Unédic (unemployment scheme) like Social Security, the government wants to save a billion per year.
It was expected, before the pandemic, that Unédic’s finances would return to balance in 2021. However, they show a deficit of 17.4 billion for 2020, to which could be added 10 billion in 2021 and 6.4 others. in 2022. Unédic’s debt would thus reach 54.2 billion in 2020, 64.2 billion in 2021 and 70.6 billion in 2022.
But only a quarter of the 2020 deficit comes from the increase in benefits paid to the unemployed. Most of the rest is due to the financing of short-time working (eight million employees at the height of the crisis) and to the reductions in charges, decided by the State.
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