The Assembly rejects the agreement between social partners on negotiated terminations.

The text was adopted in the Senate on April 1st.

Members of Parliament adopted amendments to remove the single article of the bill, by 77 votes to 32, effectively rejecting the text.

The members of La France Insoumise, more mobilized than the other groups, voted for these amendments (53 votes), as did the Greens and the Communists. The Socialists abstained, while the rest of the chamber, from the "central bloc" to the far right, voted against.

Speaking to AFP, sources close to the Prime Minister indicated that he would call for a second reading of the bill, emphasizing that its rejection was linked to a "mobilization problem that put La France Insoumise (LFI) in a majority position." "This agreement is important; it is the first step forward since the abandonment of the 2024 unemployment insurance reform," the source argued.

The agreement reached in February between three employers' organizations (Medef, CPME, U2P) and three trade union organizations (CFDT, CFTC and FO but not the CGT or the CFE-CGC) notably provides for reducing the maximum duration of compensation for beneficiaries under 55 years of age from 18 to 15 months, after an amicable termination of employment contract.

This period would be set at 20,5 months for those over 55 years of age.

"The whole agreement will generate up to one billion euros in savings once fully implemented, including 800 million euros by 2029, thanks to the single measure relating to negotiated terminations," stressed Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou to the members of parliament.

He argued that it should also allow an additional 15.000 people to return to work each year.

Supporters of the bill highlighted a "windfall effect" linked to negotiated terminations, with "nearly 40% of employees" who benefited from them "saying they would have resigned if this system had not existed", according to rapporteur Thibault Bazin (LR), citing a survey by Dares, the research department of the Ministry of Labour.

Other arguments include the cost of these breaks for unemployment insurance (9,4 billion euros in 2024, or 26% of the total expenditure of the scheme, according to Mr. Bazin), and the fact that the employees who benefit from it are "more qualified" than the average claimant, with "better prospects of a quick return to activity".

France Unbowed, through its spokesperson Hadrien Clouet, denounced "a new attack" against the unemployed, stressing that these negotiated terminations were sometimes imposed on employees, thus resembling "disguised dismissals".