The government is taking back control. It will set new compensation rules for job seekers from July 1, taking note of the “disagreement” between the social partners, according to a press release this Monday, April 22 from the Ministry of Labor.
The executive will issue “a deficiency decree” which will “aim to contribute to the achievement of full employment and to promote the rapid return to employment of unemployed people receiving compensation”, indicates this press release. As in 2019, employers and unions are once again losing control over the definition of these rules to the benefit of the executive. The ministry recalls that “the social partners did not manage to find an agreement in the negotiation relating to the Life at Work Pact, which concerned the employment of seniors, professional retraining and the universal time savings account (Cetu)” engaged since December.
He adds that “the outcome of this negotiation conditioned the entry into force” of the November unemployment insurance agreement, “in order to make it compatible with the summer 2023 framework document” which provided for savings on compensation for senior jobseekers. Unemployment insurance was governed by a deficiency decree which expired at the end of 2023, but whose validity was extended by six months by a “joining” decree until June 30.
Towards a reduction in the duration of compensation
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has already announced his desire to further tighten the conditions of compensation for the unemployed to, he justifies, further encourage them to return to work. At the end of March, on TF1, the tenant of Matignon said he was considering a reduction in the duration of compensation from 18 to 12 months maximum. Other avenues mentioned: the possibility of changing the minimum time worked to benefit from unemployment, or even acting on the level of compensation.
The unions, which had fiercely fought the controversial reforms of 2019 and 2023, had called in advance on the government in mid-March to abandon a new reform, believing that it was necessary to “stop the populist stigmatization of the unemployed”.