Swiss workers, living in France, receive their unemployment benefit in France. Negotiations are underway to reduce this allowance, which results in an additional cost of 800 million euros per year for unemployment insurance.
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In the French region around Geneva, elected officials and cross-border workers are up in arms about the proposals “discriminatory” reduction in unemployment compensation for cross-border workers working in Switzerland. Some associations are ready to go to court.
“The border worker is cherished in certain periods, but jealous and vilified in others. He is a scapegoat”irritates Thomas Fischer, at the 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 declared at the association's headquarters in Annemasse.
At the heart of the discussions: the negotiation on unemployment insurance between employers and unions which must conclude this Thursday, November 14 or Friday, November 15.
This is a request from the government of Michel Barnier. Unions and employers must find an additional 400 million euros compared to the agreement concluded last year. One avenue concerns the compensation system for cross-border recipients, representing an additional cost of around 800 million euros per year for unemployment insurance, according to Unédic.
European rules provide that cross-border workers contribute in the country of employment, but receive compensation calculated on the basis of their salaries, which are 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. Labor Minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet has indicated that she wants to redefine the notion of“reasonable offer of employment” for cross-border workers.
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 measures “discriminatory”. “We are ready to go to court”told AFP Pierre-Loïc Faury, a manager of the Amicale des frontièresiers, an association based in Morteau (Doubs) which claims 11,000 members.
“It’s unfair. France is trying to absorb its inability to manage unemployment through border workers,” denounces one of their members, a thirty-year-old working in marketing in Geneva and wishing to remain anonymous.
With her husband, also a cross-border worker, they consult the association “to find out if it’s not ultimately better to live” in Switzerland, she said. A project that the couple was already thinking about, but that discussions on unemployment compensation have “accelerated”.
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 Amicale des borderiers 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 benefit 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.
At the end of September, a little more than half (57.4%) of the 403,000 cross-border workers were domiciled in France, namely 231,456 people, a figure which has doubled since 2007. Cross-border workers' associations say they have been sounding the alarm since 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”explains the head of the cross-border center at the Fédération des enterprises 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. “We should stop hitting the border workers, it’s up to the States to discuss among themselves”she asks.
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” more “it is important not to stigmatize” border workers, adds the mayor of Vulbens, Florent Benoit, president of the Community of Communes of Genevois, bringing together 17 communes of Haute-Savoie. “It is not up to France to provide the mattress for the Swiss social model”he said, calling for a “courteous but firm dialogue” with Bern.
