An unemployed person who would have been entitled, for example, to 12 months of compensation under the current system will only be entitled to nine months. A minimum floor of six months will be preserved. The first impacts are therefore expected from August 1st.
The Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, hopes "100.000 to 150.000 additional returns to work" in 2023 thanks to the reform. "We are going to keep one of the most generous systems in Europe," he assured at a press conference.
But the unions are furious. "Everyone sees their rights go down", "it's a scandal", denounced Michel Beaugas (FO) after a final meeting at the Ministry of Labor.
Today, the duration of compensation is applied according to the principle of one day worked, one day compensated, with a maximum of 24 months for those under 53, 30 months for those aged 53-54 and 36 months for those aged 55. or more.
Seniors "will pay the most", going from a maximum of 36 months to 27, reacted Denis Gravouil (CGT), fearing that they would switch to RSA. It is "a precariousness trap", added Eric Courpotin (CFTC).
The leitmotif of the executive is that unemployment insurance be "stricter when too many jobs are unfilled, more generous when unemployment is high".
Red or green
“Additional rights” for job seekers are thus provided for in the event of bad economic conditions.
When job seekers reach the end of their rights, if the state of the labor market is "red" - an unemployment rate above 9% or increasing by 0,8 points over a quarter, then their duration compensation will return to today's level.
The unemployment rate is currently at 7,3% and the minister expects it to be "fairly the same" in February.
But if, for three quarters in a row, the unemployment rate falls below 9%, the situation will return to "green" and the duration will be reduced again by 25%.
The executive justifies its reform by the recruitment difficulties of companies, and makes it a first stone of its strategy to achieve full employment in 2027, a rate of around 5%.
On the employers' side, Hubert Mongon (Medef) welcomed a reform which allows "to go in the right direction" towards the return to employment. For Éric Chevée (CPME), the announced provisions "usefully complement" the unemployment insurance schemes.
After initial reluctance, Michel Picon (U2P, craftsmen and merchant) said he was "all in all in favor" of the reform because "the longer you remain unemployed, the less chance you have of returning to work".
For the CFDT, this modulation "is not a solution to achieve full employment". "It is the low salaries, staggered hours, short contracts, difficult access to transport and housing that are at the root of the recruitment difficulties," she said in a press release.
When the previous reform came into force in 2021, the government "undertook not to touch the capital of rights", she recalled. The compensation had been reduced for some claimants but in return the lengthened duration.
"The measures taken under a speech of pseudo rationality inciting the return to employment hide in fact a frenzied desire (...) to save money", judged the CFE-CGC. Unédic has estimated them at 4 billion euros per year.
The government will then issue a decree. This was made possible by the "labour market" bill, adopted Thursday by Parliament, which gives the hand to the executive to decide on the rules until the end of 2023 in place of the social partners.
But the Minister has already assured that this modulation would be present in the "framework letter" which will be sent to the social partners during 2023 in order to negotiate new rules for January 1, 2024.
The government also wants employers and unions, which manage Unédic, to work in early 2023 on a new governance of the regime.