Three chords at once. Employers and several unions managed to agree on new rules on unemployment insurance and on measures to promote the employment of seniors, Thursday November 14, with the added bonus of a third agreement on social dialogue. “We managed, after a flash negotiation, to reach a conclusion this evening”greeted the representative of Medef, Hubert Mongon. The CPME, however, criticized the agreement on seniors, “not balanced”while the U2P, the third employers' organization, which brings together artisans and traders, issued a “positive review” on the three texts.
Among the unions, which must now submit these agreements to their authorities, the CFDT and the CFTC expressed a favorable opinion on the three texts. The CGT was clearly more reluctant, deploring an agreement “dur” on unemployment insurance and the absence of “gros gains” for employees on the employment of seniors. The CFE-CGC, which had already indicated that it would not sign the agreement on unemployment insurance, indicated that it was in favor of the two other texts. FO still reserves its assessment on the three aspects.
The unemployment insurance text, planned for four years, concerns the rules for compensation for the unemployed which must apply from January 1. In particular, to save money, it plans to reduce compensation for unemployed cross-border workers who have worked in Switzerland, Belgium, Germany or Luxembourg. Their rights are today calculated on the basis of their salaries in these countries, which are significantly higher than in France.
To register for unemployment insurance for the first time, the text specifies that you must have worked at least five months, and no longer six months, over the last 24 months. To take into account the pension reform, which the unions are contesting, a two-year increase in the age limits giving entitlement to longer compensation is also planned. The level giving entitlement to a maximum of 22.5 months of compensation thus increases from 53 to 55 years and that giving entitlement to 27 months from 55 to 57 years. The measure should bring in 350 million over four years.
In order to get closer to the 400 million euros in additional savings requested from the social partners from 2025 by the Minister of Labor, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, the employers accepted that the reduction from 4.05% to 4% of the employer contribution to unemployment insurance does not come into effect until May 1, 2025. Overall, the new rules would make it possible to generate some 2.3 billion savings over four years for the unemployment insurance system, according to a calculation by Unédic.
In terms of senior employment, the text intends to promote progressive retirements, which are not very widespread. Accessible from the age of 60 and allowing the employee to work part-time while continuing to contribute at full rate for their retirement, the system does not however become a right to which the employer could no longer oppose, as the the unions would have wanted.
The employers, for their part, have given up on the “experience enhancement contract”, a new system to facilitate the hiring of older unemployed people, with which the employee can be automatically retired as soon as they is entitled to a full pension. The employers' organizations have immediately renounced a progressive exemption from unemployment insurance contributions for the employer who recruits an employee with such a contract.
Finally, the third chord, “fell a little from the sky”says a negotiator, aims to open negotiations on union paths and to ask the government to legislate to allow staff representatives to serve more than three mandates.
