unemployment benefits halved for Swiss cross-border workers from January 2025?

This is a measure that is causing concern among cross-border workers who work in Switzerland: their unemployment benefits could be halved on January 1, 2025. This is in any case what is provided for in the new agreement negotiated last week between the employers and unions.

Cross-border workers are in the crosshairs of UNEDIC. And they have reason to be worried. In Burgundy-Franche-Comté, in June 2024, there were 47,917 cross-border workers in Switzerland. More than 7 in 10 cross-border workers live in the Doubs department, nearly 2 in 10 in Jura and 1 in 10 in the Territoire de Belfort.

Signed Thursday November 14, 2024, the French social partners agreed on the new amendment to the 2023 agreement on unemployment insurance. It provides for the establishment of a compensation coefficient depending on the country of employment.

For six and a half years, Clément, 32, had crossed the border with Switzerland every day, from the village of Fourgs, to go to his work. But last week he was laid off from his company. Today, the thirty-year-old is worried about his future unemployment benefits.

Until then, When a French person worked in Switzerland, he contributed to unemployment insurance on his pay slip. Thanks to a 2004 European agreement, Switzerland, like other border countries, pays a small compensation for the “unemployment bill” to France. The agreement was never revised. And that’s good, the country of origin, and therefore UNEDIC in France, which always pays compensation calculated on the Swiss salary. Swiss salaries being much higher (4,400 euros gross the minimum wage in Geneva for 42 hours of work), compensation therefore costs more.

So, UNEDIC, which manages unemployment insurance in France, began negotiations in October on the rules for unemployment insurance for cross-border workers. UNEDIC pointed the finger at their compensation system, which generates excess spending of 800 million euros per year.

If the proposal must still be examined by the deputies, the modification of the calculation formula for cross-border beneficiaries could come into force from January 1, 2025. French legislation therefore provides for the application of a coefficient, supposed to take into account the differences in salaries between the country of employment and that of residence. This coefficient would be 0.47 for Switzerland and will be reassessed every year. Other countries such as Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg would also be subject to this coefficient.

This would lead to a clear reduction in compensation, almost by half for cross-border workers. It would go from 57% currently to 28%. Clément made a quick calculation: today, he can claim an allowance of 3,000 euros. With the new measure, his compensation could drop to 1,600 euros. “I work all year to get by,” he sighs. “That would put me in great difficulty. And again, I am single and without children, but it is enough that we have one or two children or a mortgage…”, he continues. Nicolas Guyon, reception advisor in Pontarlier at the European Cross-Border Group give an example: “If we take the example of an executive who works in Paris and earns 6,000 euros, he will always receive 57% of his salary”.

READ: Unemployment insurance: “Why stigmatize cross-border workers? Not everyone earns 10,000 euros!”

Overall, all of these new rules should generate savings in France: 179 million in 2025, 405 million in 2026, 893 million in 2027, one billion in 2028. For Nicolas Guyon, the purchasing power of cross-border workers will “significantly decrease”. He specifies: “A cross-border worker will find himself in a very delicate financial situation, at the risk of no longer being able to pay his debts”.

If the measure is officially adopted, the Amicale des transfrontaliers is ready to take legal action before the European Court of Human Rights “to condemn the French state”specifies Nicolas Guyon. “It should obviously be voted on since it would be part of the 2025 financing projects,” underlines Nicolas Guyon who considers this measure “scandalous”.

“It is a discriminatory measure against cross-border workers and human rights,” declares Thomas Fischer, general director of the European Cross-border Group. For him, the current situation of cross-border unemployed people does not represent abuse.

If our allowances go from 57% of our salary to 28%, it completely changes life

Alexandre, employed in the watchmaking industry in Switzerland

France 3

“Every human being lives according to his salary. If our compensation drops, it completely changes life,” underlines Alexandre, employed in the watchmaking sector near Lausanne. He adds: “Not everyone earns 10,000 euros per month. We drive more, we spend more time in traffic, we see our loved ones less”. If this measure were to apply to cross-border workers, “the reduction in compensation should be generalized to all French people who receive it”, declares Thomas Fischer of Groupement Transfrontalier Européen.

The 77,000 unemployed French cross-border workers cost France 803 million euros each year in 2023 according to the UNEDIC report. In total, since 2011, the cumulative additional cost of compensating cross-border workers amounts to 9 billion euros.