Do you work in Switzerland, Belgium, Germany or Luxembourg, while residing in France? Be aware that your unemployment benefit may drop sharply in the coming months!
On November 14, the social partners finalized draft agreements on unemployment insurance, which meet the financial requirements imposed by the executive. They must now be signed by the stakeholders and then approved by the government.
If this is the case, expect, as a cross-border worker, to be put to work. We explain everything to you.
Your unemployment benefit is currently based on your actual income
As a cross-border worker, you contribute to the State which employs you. But in the event of job loss, your unemployment benefit is allocated by Unédic, the French unemployment insurance system. It is calculated based on the income you earn in the state in which you work which are, as a general rule, higher than French salaries.
A system of financial compensation by the States in which cross-border workers have contributed is provided for by European regulations to compensate for this shortfall. However, as Unédic notes, “ compensation expenses relating to cross-border workers borne by Unédic are much higher than the reimbursements made by border countries to the French unemployment insurance system”.
In 2023, for example, the additional cost for Unédic reached 803 million euros: the French regime had to spend 1 billion euros to compensate cross-border workers, but the sums recovered thanks to the compensation mechanism only amounted to 200 million euros.
In the long run, this shortfall weighs on the regime: cumulatively since 2011, expenses linked to cross-border workers represent 11.2 billion euros at the end of 2023, for only 2.2 billion in compensation.
Cross-border workers working in Switzerland, who are more numerous, are particularly expensive for unemployment insurance: in 2023, 25,065 cross-border workers were compensated, for an average net compensation amount of €2,262. The cost for Unédic represents, after compensation, 563 million euros. In comparison, cross-border workers working in Spain only cost the Unemployment Insurance system 2 million euros.
Towards a new method of calculating unemployment benefits for cross-border workers
Faced with these expenses, the social partners have called on the public authorities to take the necessary steps to revise European regulations so that Unédic can cover its costs with regard to cross-border workers.
While waiting for this revision to be madethe amendment supplementing the initial memorandum of understanding of November 2023 plans to modify the rules for calculating unemployment benefits for cross-border workers.
Article 12.1 of the amendment is, for this purpose, entitled “ application to salaries received abroad of a coefficient taking into account the differences in average salaries between the State of employment and France, State of residence ».
This coefficient would be “calculated on the basis of average salary levels per country observed and published by the OECD, to which a correction coefficient of 1.1 is applied in order to limit excessive variations in the level of the allocation in relation to this that the beneficiary would have received without the application of this measure.
The amendment specifies that the application of these coefficients cannot lead to the payment of an allowance lower than the minimum allowance, currently set at €31.97 (value on 1is July 2024).
In a logic of boosting the paths to sustainable employment of cross-border job seekers, the amendment also provides for a regulatory review of the reasonable offer of employment, as well as the establishment by France of monitoring specific to these workers.
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