Unemployment insurance: the failure of negotiations on senior employment increases uncertainty

After the pension reform and the raising of the retirement age to 64, the unions wanted to obtain guarantees on continued employment and working conditions for seniors, before giving their approval to the modification of the compensation rules older unemployed people.

By amendment to the unemployment insurance agreement negotiated last fall, but which has not yet entered into force, the age limits opening to a longer period of compensation must be increased by two years: from 53 at 55 years old to be entitled to 22,5 months (instead of 18 for the youngest), and from 55 to 57 years old to be entitled to 27 months.

The signing of this amendment was planned for this Wednesday in the wake of the agreement on the employment of seniors which ultimately will not see the light of day.

Labor Minister Catherine Vautrin wondered on Wednesday whether the social partners were still going to sign this document.

"The social partners told us that they would submit their copy on April 15. All I know is that they had a meeting this morning, that it is canceled. I don't know if the non-agreement ( on the employment of seniors) wins everything or if they will come back to unemployment insurance with a proposal", she declared at the end of the council of ministers.

“If there were to be no agreement on unemployment insurance, we would do what we call a deficiency decree, that is to say we would take back (control) because by definition, "We must have an element on unemployment insurance on July 1st," she added.

“Strong social expectations”

The rules which currently govern unemployment compensation expire on June 30.

They were set by a deficiency decree taken by the government in 2019, already in the absence of an agreement between social partners. It expired on December 31. These rules were then extended for six months by a “joining decree” while waiting for the new agreement to come into force.

Will a new deficiency decree tighten the rules even before sending a new framework letter to the social partners to renegotiate this year in order to make the French social model more "incentivizing" a return to employment? , in accordance with the wish of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal?

Questioned by AFP, the Ministry of Labor did not respond at this stage.

In addition, certain measures proposed by employers in its draft agreement on the employment of seniors, as well as others which do not appear there such as the universal time savings account (Cetu), could be taken up by the government in a bill, confirmed Catherine Vautrin.

“If the government wants these elements to be taken up, it is up to the government to take a legislative vehicle to take up all or part of these elements and give them the force of law,” she indicated, citing the “specific CDI for people over 60", a "360-degree mid-career review" as well as professional wear and tear.

"Mess"

In a press release published Wednesday evening, FO "regrets that this negotiation did not lead to new rights for employees" and considers that "the intransigence of employers poses a strong threat to jointism and inter-professional collective bargaining.

Consequently, "the confederal office of Force Ouvrière, meeting today, decided not to sign this draft agreement", added FO, describing the result of these negotiations as "a waste".

“There is a pension reform which pushes back careers by two years in companies. We must take this into account and therefore talk about work issues and working conditions” for seniors, Yvan Ricordeau argued earlier on franceinfo , the CFDT negotiator.

During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, after the failure of the last round with the employers' representatives, he judged that "the employers did not want this negotiation from the start", adding that "he tried to turn it around in his sense" to better evacuate it.

“We negotiated in good faith on both sides, [but] ultimately we were very limited by the government's framing rule which prohibited us from any financial room for maneuver,” declared for his part the president of Medef Patrick Martin on RMC.