Current unemployment insurance rules to be extended, Dussopt announces

The unemployment benefit rules, which expire on October 31, will be extended to have time to assess the effects of the latest reform which came into force at the end of 2021, Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt said on Tuesday July 12.

"These rules are in effect until October 31 and we are working to see how to extend them," Dussopt told Sud Radio.

He did not specify the new term, but according to union sources, this extension could be for a year or until the end of 2023.

Mr. Dussopt recalled that the application of the 2019 reform was delayed for two years due to the Covid and the appeals of the unions before the Council of State.

"We must first make an assessment. Let's first take stock of the usefulness of these new rules. They facilitate recruitment, they facilitate employment incentives, but we only have a few months of hindsight," said he pointed out.

Unédic has not yet assessed this reform and it is not expected for several months.

The new method of calculating the daily reference wage (SJR), the basis of unemployment benefit, came into force on October 1, 2021.

It was followed on December 1 by the reform of eligibility (six months of work and no longer four to be compensated) and the degression of 30% (for the unemployed under 57 who received remuneration above 4.500 euros gross) which applies after six months and no longer eight.

The bonus-malus for companies (in seven major sectors consuming short contracts) will only have an effect on unemployment contributions in September 2022 even if the observation period for companies to calculate this modulation started in July 2021 .

During the election campaign, Emmanuel Macron promised a new reform so that the rules of compensation are more modulated according to the economic situation.

The extension of the rules would leave more time to negotiate this reform, especially since some unions and employers' organizations are demanding that it be coupled with a change in the governance of Unédic, a joint unemployment compensation scheme where the State invites more and more.

They did not appreciate the course of the last reform, where the State first asked them to negotiate high levels of savings in a very precise "framework letter", then took control again following the failure of the negotiations.

"We do not want a system where the leeway left to the social partners to set the rules is too small", reaffirmed Laurent Berger (CFDT) recently.