Unemployment insurance: union leaders call on employers to make an effort

Last Thursday, at the penultimate meeting, employers (Medef, CPME and U2P) and representative unions each presented divergent proposals to regulate the use of negotiated terminations before a final session scheduled for Wednesday that was supposed to be conclusive.

With 515.000 individual negotiated terminations signed in 2024, unemployment benefit expenditures related to negotiated terminations reached 9,4 billion euros, according to Unédic.

The government is asking social partners to find at least 400 million in savings per year, but employers have set themselves a target of one billion euros in savings.

"One billion (euros, editor's note) is out of the question. It has to be around 400 million euros," explained the head of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, at the end of a press conference of union leaders.

"There also needs to be a willingness on the part of employers' organizations to conclude with a reasonable amount of savings," insists the union representative, who believes that "it is certainly not at a time when unemployment is rising again (...) that we should drastically reduce the rights of job seekers."

"Employers must stop the hypocrisy and double-speak," says Sophie Binet, head of the CGT.

For the CGT, the ball is now in the employers' court: "The trade union organizations have already made their way, we agreed to enter into new negotiations even though we did not want to, and there is an agreement that dates back less than a year (...) So we will not move from this position, now it is the employers who must come to their senses and return to the negotiating table, and stop the bidding wars and provocation."

"We weren't asking for anything at all. We didn't want any negotiation. We just wanted the agreement we signed last year to be transposed into law," insists Frédéric Souillot (FO).

Since 2017 and the arrival of Emmanuel Macron, unemployment benefit rules have been tightened several times. The latest agreement was reached in November 2024, with some measures coming into effect on April 1st of this year.

And previous reforms have "rarely or almost never been evaluated", adds Cyril Chabanier (CFTC).

However, the social partners must also meet on Friday to discuss "short-term contracts" and continue their discussion on the autonomous social agenda.

"If employers are not loyal to us in the unemployment insurance negotiations - in this case they are not - how do you expect us to throw ourselves into an autonomous social agenda negotiation?", François Hommeril (CFE-CGC) pretended to ask.