Unemployment insurance: unions and employers set three conditions for the government

In this letter received by AFP on Friday, the signatories gave Sébastien Lecornu until January 15 to formally withdraw the framework letter on unemployment insurance sent in August by François Bayrou, then Prime Minister, which asked social partners to make very significant savings on unemployment insurance.

The Minister of Labour, Jean-Pierre Farandou, had assured them at the end of November that such a withdrawal would take place "as soon as the commitment to negotiation is formalized" and that a timetable would be set, which has been the case since Wednesday.

The social partners are also requesting by next Thursday "the approval of the amendment" on the bonus-malus system for short-term contracts which they finalized last July and "the publication of a decree" to make effective the reduction from six to five months of the required working time over the last 24 months, for first-time entrants to unemployment insurance.

The main rules of the latest unemployment insurance reform, agreed by the social partners in November 2024, came into effect in April 2025, theoretically for four years, but the unions are still waiting for the implementation of the scheme for first-time entrants.

As for the bonus-malus system for short-term contracts, it is loathed by employers. The amendment signed in July, except by the CGT and the CFE-CGC, reduced its scope.

In recent years, unemployment insurance compensation rules have been tightened several times.

On Wednesday, employers' organizations expressed their desire to reopen negotiations on unemployment insurance very broadly, well beyond the issue of negotiated terminations, by mentioning entry conditions, compensation rules and specific schemes (intermittent workers...).

The CGT, which had criticized employers' attempts to "disrupt" negotiations at the end of Wednesday's meeting, again denounced in a statement on Thursday a desire to target "precarious and unemployed workers, at least those still receiving unemployment benefits already severely weakened by the Macron reforms and their associates."

The social partners planned to conclude their negotiations on February 25 for unemployment insurance, with the government asking them to find 400 million euros in savings on compensation for negotiated terminations, and on March 25 for short-term contracts.