“It will now be the salary usually practiced in France which will be one of the constituent elements of the reasonable employment offer (ORE) and no longer the salaries practiced abroad,” indicates a press release from the Ministry of Labor, published Friday. The ERO takes into account in particular the qualifications of the jobseeker and the labor market situation in their geographical area.
Job seekers are “required to accept any reasonable offer of employment that is proposed to (them)” and, in the event of two refusals of ORE without legitimate reason, risk deregistration and removal of their allowance, according to France Work.
Salaries in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Germany are generally higher than in France, which sometimes dissuades cross-border workers from accepting employment in their country of residence. The redefinition of the ERO was provided for by the agreement on unemployment insurance signed in November by the social partners.
Another measure aimed at reducing compensation for cross-border unemployed workers by applying a coefficient to them based on the difference in salary level with France was ultimately rejected by the government for legal reasons.
Payments made to unemployment insurance by countries neighboring France, Switzerland in the lead, do not compensate for its shortfall and generate a deficit of 800 million euros per year for Unédic, recalls the government, which wants further reform the European rules for unemployment compensation for cross-border workers and presents the ERO measure as a “first step”.
The government also justifies the redefinition of the ORE by the fact that cross-border workers have “a longer time to search for a new job” than other unemployed people: they “consume their rights more than other job seekers”, at 41% compared to 37% on average. The draft decree was transmitted on Wednesday by Minister of Labor Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet to the National Commission for Collective Bargaining, Employment and Vocational Training (CNNCEFP).
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