The bill aimed at creating “France Travail” to replace Pôle emploi is presented this Wednesday, June 7, 2023 in the Council of Ministers. Here is what it contains.
A new entity to try to fight against unemployment. Exit Pôle emploi, hello France Travail. The support organization for people looking for a job will change its identity. This is the most symbolic measure of the bill presented to the Council of Ministers this Wednesday, June 7, 2023. The document on which the government worked and which will soon be placed in the hands of parliamentarians provides for an overhaul of the monitoring of unemployed by combining data from various State bodies, in particular with a view to automatically registering the 40% of RSA beneficiaries who are not registered with the future France Travail. The organization of the new entity must above all allow a “faster entry” of job seekers into their search and support process.
According a report of the High Commissioner for Employment and Business Engagement, Thibaut Guilluy, the budget for the long list of changes mentioned could be around 2.3 to 2.7 billion euros, if everything came to be followed. The goal is to achieve full employment in France by 2027 thanks to this future law. For the president, full employment would be considered achieved if the unemployment rate reaches 5% by 2027. It is currently 7.2%.
France Work, what is it?
France Travail is the result of an eight-month project led by the High Commissioner for Employment and Business Commitment, Thibaut Guilluy. According to him, France Travail should be the “gateway for all job seekers” and “the French team for integration, training and employment”. It is a question of simplifying the steps of the people in search of employment, but also those of the companies. This will not, however, merge the various employment actors, but group them together in a hierarchy that is supposed to be clearer: Pôle emploi will become France Travail, which will be at the top of the network, the local missions will be renamed “France Travail jeunes” and Cap emploi in “France Travail handicap”. France Travail must be the first entry point before being directed to the right actor. Data sharing would then be broader and more effective, according to the ministerial report.
What are the differences with Pôle Emploi?
Especially coordination. Since its appearance in 2008, Pôle emploi has failed to create closer links with the various employment actors. France Travail must therefore “promote a real dialogue between the different actors in order to inform decision-making”. The bet is substantial in the face of the administrative octopus that is the current system. Going to a France Travail agency will therefore not be out of place. The agencies will still be in operation, but with a new internal system. The name Pôle emploi is therefore destined to disappear, but it is above all its communication that will be transformed.
The President of the Republic wants to create a one-stop shop to increase efficiency. The idea is similar to that of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008: Pôle emploi resulted from the merger between ANPE and Assedic. But other players still exist and do not necessarily communicate together, such as departmental councils or local missions. Government training is thus offered in duplicate by several services. The Head of State therefore wishes to modify this “administrative mille-feuille” with the creation of a single service called France Travail.
For companies in contact with Pôle Emploi, the report recommends creating a digital platform with the designation of a fixed contact person per company to improve the speed of recruitment. These companies will also be offered training for access to training and the setting up of the “France Travail academy” dedicated to centralizing information resources.
RSA beneficiaries will have to do “hours of insertion”
The France Travail report is accompanied by a section on recipients of the RSA (revenu de solidarité active). A system tested since April sees 40,000 of them benefit from enhanced support from their Pôle Emploi adviser. These employees will see their number of beneficiaries, for whom they are responsible, decrease in order to improve the quality of monitoring. The government wishes to take advantage of its future bill to generalize this experiment. These hours of integration correspond to fifteen hours of training, CV workshops or internships to be carried out under penalty of losing part of their RSA (currently set at 607 euros for a single person).
The report provides the timetable for this future employment reform. The experiments carried out in certain Pôle emploi must continue until the end of 2023 to lead to the gradual commissioning of France Travail from 1 January 2024. The year 2026 should mark the definitive transformation of Pôle emploi into France Travail. But this is conditional on the future legislative progress of the project and its passage through Parliament.