Unemployment insurance in France: cross-border workers are worried

In the French region around Geneva, elected officials and cross-border workers are up in arms over “discriminatory” proposals to reduce unemployment compensation for cross-border workers working in Switzerland, with some associations ready to go to court.

“The frontier is cherished in certain periods, but jealous and vilified in others. He’s a scapegoat,” says Thomas Fischer, head of the European Cross-Border Group, with 25,000 members.

However, the salaries of cross-border workers support the economy of several French regions, he told AFP at the association’s headquarters in Annemasse (Haute-Savoie).

At the heart of the discussions, the negotiation on unemployment insurance between employers and unions which must conclude on Thursday. The government is asking them to find an additional 400 million euros compared to the agreement reached last year. One avenue concerns the compensation system for cross-border beneficiaries. This represents an additional cost of around 800 million euros per year for unemployment insurance, according to Unédic.

European rules provide that they contribute in the country of employment but receive compensation calculated on the basis of their salaries, often higher than in France, particularly for those who have worked in Switzerland and Luxembourg. One proposal would be to apply a coefficient to take into account the difference in standard of living between the country of work and France. And the Minister of Labor Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet has indicated that she wants to redefine the notion of “reasonable employment offer” for cross-border workers.

More favorable of live in Switzerland?

Unédic, in an internal document at the end of October, noted however that the principle of a coefficient “could be considered non-compliant with the current legal framework and require its prior modification”. Cross-border workers’ associations denounce “discriminatory” measures. “We are ready to go to court,” Pierre Fleury, a manager of the Amicale des Frontières, an association based in Morteau (Doubs), which claims 11,000 members, told AFP.

One of their members, a thirty-something working in marketing in Geneva and wishing to remain anonymous, denounces an injustice.

With her husband, also a cross-border worker, they consult the association “to find out if in the end it is not better to live” in Switzerland, she told AFP. A project that the couple was already thinking about but which discussions on unemployment compensation have “accelerated”.

Cross-border workers are “worried” and those who are unemployed now have “a feeling of shame”: “They have the impression of stealing something from France,” laments Ibrahima Diao, lawyer for the Border Workers’ Association in Gaillard. , near Geneva.

The European regulation provides for financial compensation between States: the payment by the country of employment of between three and five months of unemployment benefits to the country of residence. An amount deemed by all to be insufficient given the growing number of cross-border workers residing in France and working in Switzerland.

Dialogue with the Confederation

At the end of September, a little more than half (57.4%) of the 403,000 cross-border workers working in Switzerland were domiciled in France, namely 231,456 people, a figure which has doubled since 2007. Cross-border workers’ associations say they are ringing the bell alarm for years.

In 2019, the States reached an agreement so that unemployed cross-border workers would be supported by the country where they worked.

“At the time of the vote in the European Parliament, several vetoed it,” explains the head of the cross-border center at the Fédération desentreprises romandes, Guylaine Riondel-Besson, in Geneva. The European regulation provides that within the framework of a bilateral agreement, France can request higher compensation from Switzerland.

A call to negotiate with Berne also launched by the associations as well as by deputies and senators from Haute-Savoie, who sent a letter to the Minister of Labor.

“Today, the French State is in a difficult financial situation” but “it is important not to stigmatize” cross-border workers, adds the mayor of Vulbens, Florent Benoit, president of the Community of Communes of Genevois, bringing together 17 municipalities from Haute-Savoie. “It is not up to France to provide the cushion for the Swiss social model,” he said, calling for a “courteous but firm dialogue” with Berne. (ats)

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