For the government, they are one of the main culprits for the increase in the unemployment rate. Conventional terminations, these terminations of contracts allowing the company to avoid justifying a dismissal and the employee on a permanent contract to leave their position by receiving unemployment, have been constantly increasing since their creation in 2008. Resulting from an agreement between employers and unions, they were originally born from a desire to help employers get rid of unwanted employees and overcome the “fear of hiring”.
But in the current situation their effect seems to be the opposite, and the government is looking for fuses to blow to curb the unemployment rate. It gained another 0.2 points last summer in France, reaching 7.4% of the active population, while employment suffered from the economic slowdown. And according to INSEE, the increase should continue in the following quarter.
Fewer breakups, less unemployment?
The solution, for Élisabeth Borne, could be in making access to conventional termination more and more popular in the business world. In 2015 there were 315,000 in the territory, compared to 504,000 in 2022. According to the economic daily The gallery, the Prime Minister therefore “asked Olivier Dussopt to provide her with urgent proposals” to limit the use of this tool. In September, the State had already tried to discourage its use by increasing social security contributions on departure checks. New, more stringent proposals are now expected by December 15 at the latest.
Another avenue proposed very recently by Bruno Le Maire: the tightening of unemployment compensation for seniors, who “leave companies early and go to unemployment insurance”.
The Minister of the Economy thus said he was in favor of lowering the duration of unemployment compensation for those over 55 to align it with those of other unemployed people – from 27 to 18 months. A proposal which should go through the agreement of the social partners, under negotiation until March 15 on the employment of seniors.