Question 40058 — unemployment

Summary

Ms. Muriel Ressiguier alerts the Minister of Labor, Employment and Integration to the reform of unemployment insurance. The bill “for the freedom to choose one's professional future” tabled in 2018 in the National Assembly provides in particular for a reform of unemployment insurance. Since its genesis, this reform has been widely criticized, whether by the social partners, Unédic which published an alarming report, or by intermittent workers who are calling for its repeal, and even the Council of State which twice rejected measures of this reform in November 2020 and June 2021. The health crisis we are going through has a catastrophic economic and social impact; drop in activity, social plans, site closures, etc. In its latest opinion of June 22, 2021, the Council of State temporarily suspended the new methods for calculating unemployment benefit, the SJR, deeming the economic situation “uncertain”. Indeed, 715,000 jobs were destroyed in the first half of 2020. There were 6,642,790 job seekers in categories A, B and C in May 2021. The number of RSA beneficiaries crossed the symbolic mark of 2 million in December 2020. According to the National Council for Policies to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion, nearly 12 million people lived in below the poverty line at the end of 2020. Despite a social emergency situation, the Government chooses to maintain this reform of unemployment insurance which will have the consequence of weakening those who were already precarious and those impacted by the crisis. Among the controversial measures of this reform, there is that of the new method of calculating the daily reference salary which was to come into force from July 1, 2021. According to the latest decree of March 30, 2021 “carrying out various measures relating to the unemployment insurance system”, the SJR will no longer be calculated over a reference period of 12 months but over the last 24, now including periods not worked. This new method of calculation will penalize the most precarious who alternate between short contracts and periods of inactivity: such as temporary workers, seasonal workers, tour guides, extras from the hotel and catering industry, students, or even those who work at the same time as their period of unemployment to maintain their rights. An Unédic study takes the example of a person who has contracted 2 fixed-term contracts of 3 months over the last 24 months paid at the minimum wage. Currently, he could receive an allowance of 975 euros per month for 6 months. With the new reform, he will receive 659 euros per month for 24 months, i.e. drop of 32%. How do we manage to live on an allowance almost 30% lower than the poverty threshold set at 1,015 euros per month? According to an Unédic study carried out at the request of Force Ouvrière published on April 7, 2021, 1.7 million people will be affected by this unemployment insurance reform. 1.15 million of them will see their allowance reduced by 17% on average, with a drop of up to 43%. In fact, the first version of the reform challenged in November 2020 by the Council of State provided for reductions of up to 80%. The high administrative court considered that the project introduced a “manifestly disproportionate difference in treatment (...)” between policyholders. The decree of March 30, 2021 was also to neutralize certain periods of inactivity such as maternity leave, sick leave, or partial activities ; which according to Unédic's simulations were only superficially compensated, leading to a significant drop in unemployment benefit. The Government backpedaled by drafting a draft amending decree in May 2021 which has not yet been published. The latter plans to consider salaries at their usual level for the periods which must be neutralized, by creating a fictitious salary, on the basis an average salary previously received, excluding bonuses and allowances. According to the CGT, “we are moving from mathematical incompetence to legal incompetence”. Unédic has already reacted by evoking a calculation which would be “illegal” based on a reconstituted salary which was never received by the person concerned and therefore not subject to unemployment insurance contributions. According to the FO Union, this changes nothing at the heart of the problem: “it is a correction at the margin, because the method of calculation which penalizes workers alternating short contracts and periods of unemployment remains unchanged. Presented as social progress, the current unemployment insurance reform provides for an extension of the compensation period from 11 to 14 months. According to the Government, the acquired unemployment capital therefore does not vary. Policyholders will receive less but for longer. According to Eric Heyer, director of the department analysis and forecast by the French Observatory of Economic Conditions, it is “a Government strategy to save money, because beneficiaries rarely use their rights to the fullest”. Unedic confirms this in a note from March 2019: 63% of people who have had five months of rights return to work after three months. Another penalizing measure, the opening of unemployment rights is postponed. It will now be necessary work 6 months out of the last 28 months to gain rights, compared to 4 months out of 24 months currently. In 2017, 40% of fixed-term contracts lasted less than a month and a third of fixed-term contracts lasted only one day, and the trend has not reversed since. Still according to the Unédic study, the move to six months will lead to a delay in the opening of new rights by a year or more for 190,000 job seekers and by five months on average for 285,000. people. Furthermore, the decree of March 30, 2021 does not currently provide for a bonus-malus intended to sanction companies which abuse short contracts as had been announced. In short, the Government wants to fight against short contracts by penalizing those who suffer from them. This reform should save 2.3 billion euros per year. This is its true objective. It's part of a bigger plan austerity plan due in 2027, presented in France's budgetary program in mid-April 2021 to the European Commission. If France wishes to benefit from the 40 billion in aid from the European Union recovery plan, it must show allegiance to the liberal policy of the Commission which imposes austerity counterparts. The objective is to repay the public debt by drastically reducing public spending, instead of pursue a policy of fiscal and social justice, and to fight more effectively against tax evasion which represents 60 to 80 billion euros per year in France. While we live in a society where inequalities are growing in a glaring and unbearable manner, instead of thinking about protecting the most vulnerable by strengthening unemployment insurance and social security as a whole, the Government persists in carrying out reforms which increasingly attack the rights of the most precarious. Recently, 13 associations and unions, including the CGT, Secours catholique and Emmaüs France, denounced in a forum an “unfair, absurd and indecent” unemployment insurance reform. Everywhere, people are up in arms against this reform. The Government itself had to delay its implementation, as its unjust content is indefensible. She asks him if she will finally listen to reason and withdraw her unemployment insurance reform.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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