After showing a refusal from the executive at the beginning of August, the employers’ organizations are reiterating their demands within the framework of negotiations on a new unemployment insurance agreement.
“We asked for a reduction in contributions to arrive at (a rate of) less than 4%”, against 4.05% currently, declared to the press the negotiator of Medef Hubert Mongon, who also spoke on behalf of the two other employers’ organizations taking part in the negotiations, the CPME and the U2P which represent artisans and the liberal professions.
Reduction in contributions, elimination of the temporary contribution and the bonus-malus…
But Medef’s demands are not limited to a reduction in contributions. The employers also intend to put an end to the temporary contribution of 0.05 percentage points, decided in 2017 to finance the needs of the salary guarantee scheme (AGS). A requirement justified according to Medef by the acceleration of business bankruptcies which leads to an increase in the contribution.
In addition, employers stand firm on their desire to “adjust the bonus-malus system” on contributions. A principle established in order to penalize companies which use more short contracts than the average within the same branch. This is with the aim of limiting the risks to the economic health of the company in the event of a drop in activity.
Unemployment insurance reduced by 710 million euros
But for the executive, this is out of the question. Especially since the shortfall for unemployment insurance would be too significant. Of the order of 710 million euros in 2023 alone.
In a framing letter sent on August 1 to the social partners, the government had already warned that it would not agree to call it into question, any more than on the countercyclical nature of the unemployment insurance system which reduces compensation for unemployed when the unemployment rate decreases.
Haro on a reduction in rights
For their part, the employee unions consider the document presented by the employer side to be unbalanced. First and foremost, the CFDT, which considers that “surpluses […] must be used to improve the rights” of the unemployed. And to insist that the “2019 and 2023 insurance reforms” are deeply “unfair”.
Same story with the CFTC negotiator, Eric Courpotin, who deplores the fact that there is “no revenue component” for unemployment insurance. “Everything that is proposed corresponds to reductions in rights.” In the sights of the unions, the age limits for the duration of compensation for the oldest unemployed, which the employers’ organizations wish to shift.
But here again, the government, which is aiming for “full employment” in 2027, does not seem to want to budge on the “achievements” of the last two reforms which “contributed significantly to the reduction in the unemployment rate”, down to 6.9 % in mainland France in the second quarter of 2023.