Social partners urged by the government to work towards full employment

Monday's announcement of the non-approval of the agreement on unemployment insurance, pending the outcome of another negotiation on the employment of seniors, took employers and the signatory union organizations by surprise. (CFDT, FO and CFTC).

The framework was "respected" but the agreement is "incomplete", justified Matignon, who conditions his approval on an agreement on the employment of seniors and rejects any distrust.

According to an employer official, this is the first time that a joint agreement has been jeopardized in this way.

The announcement came after the postponement of a reform on work accident compensation, supported by unions and employers, the surprise publication of a decree on the suspension of the weekly rest of certain employees during the Olympics, and at a time when new negotiations begin on Agirc-Arrco to try to raise small pensions, a promise from the government.

It is clear that "the place of social partners in national social reforms has been reduced to consultations, or to closed negotiations in the straitjacket of framework letters, which leave them too little room for maneuver", underlines labor economist Philippe Askenazy, in an article published Wednesday in Le Monde.

After the pensions conflict, has the change of tone initiated in July by the government with the multilateral meeting between Elisabeth Borne and the social partners already fizzled out?

“There is no deterioration or improvement” in relations, “it is only a new demonstration” of the fact that Emmanuel Macron “thinks that the discussions with the social partners do not have much "interest", annoys Yvan Ricordeau, national secretary of the CFDT.

Matignon's invitation

Cyril Chabanier (CFTC) is optimistic and notes that "social dialogue remains better than a few months ago".

“The social partners are playing the game and will take up this week the orientation document” sent by the Ministry of Labor and within the framework of which they will negotiate by mid-March the question of employment of seniors or the Savings Account universal time (Cetu), explained Mr. Ricordeau. The objective is for Parliament to vote on a law in the spring.

Monday afternoon, unions and employers will be received at the Ministry of Labor to discuss the contours of the "High Council for Remuneration", promised during the social conference in mid-October, and supposed to tackle the issue of low wages.

The same day, the Prime Minister will receive the Ministers of Economy Bruno Le Maire and Ministers of Labor Olivier Dussopt to "discuss full employment and the means to achieve it", her office announced to AFP.

"She asked her ministers for 'new proposals'" judging that "to go from 7 to 5% unemployment, we must continue to transform the country", specifies those around her.

It is a question of "questioning existing systems" which include, among others, conventional terminations - the use of which increased by 77% between 2012 and 2022 - or training. But also, the work of seniors and their unemployment compensation, while the retirement age will be gradually raised from 62 to 64 years.

The invitation comes a few days after the President of the Republic called on the leaders of small and medium-sized businesses to “wake up” to achieve the goal of full employment that he set for his second term.

The improvement observed for several years seems to be undermined in a context now marked by a slight rise in the unemployment rate in the third quarter, which pushes certain government executives to plead for new reforms, even unpopular ones.

Thus, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire said last week that he was in favor of lowering the duration of compensation for unemployed people over 55 to align it with that of other job seekers, which would reduce it from 27 to 18 months. The benefit periods for all unemployed people have already been reduced by 25% on February 1.