Unemployment insurance: cross-border workers will be spared

It’s a “phew” of relief that cross-border workers residing in France and working in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany or Belgium can feel. Michel Barnier’s government finally abandoned the plan to reduce unemployment benefits for these workers.

In a press releasethe MP for Moselle (Lorraine) Isabelle Rauch (Horizons, party of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe) announces that this measure planned by the social partners will not be applied. “During an exchange with the Minister of Labor (editor’s note: Tuesday December 3 in the morning)the latter confirmed to me that this avenue was definitively abandoned, because it would be tainted with unconstitutionality. Common sense therefore prevailed in refusing a discriminatory measure,” indicates the parliamentarian.

Unemployment at the expense of the countries of employment?

In addition, the elected official adds that the Minister of Labor told her “that the future Polish president of the European Union wanted to tackle the problem. The idea being to reestablish responsibility for the risk of unemployment in the country where one works, not the one in which one resides.”

As a reminder, in mid-November, the employers and several unions reached an agreement on new unemployment insurance rules intended to save hundreds of millions of euros per year. Among the proposals, the application of a reducing coefficient in the calculation of the amount of unemployment compensation for cross-border workers residing in France and having worked in Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg or Belgium.

Disaster averted

The measure was intended to reduce their costly allowances, these being based on their last salaries received abroad, generally higher than in France, typically for those who worked in Switzerland. This situation weighs heavily on the accounts of theUnédic, the joint association responsible for managing unemployment insurance in France. According to European regulations, unemployment benefits for cross-border workers are paid by their country of residence, while their contributions were paid in their country of employment.

According to some estimates, the agreement planned to reduce by around half the current unemployment benefit for cross-border workers from France laid off in Switzerland, for example. Knowing that basically, in France, unemployment benefit corresponds to 57% of final gross wages, these job seekers could ultimately have received an allowance equivalent to only a quarter of their income. In other words, they could have lost the equivalent of three-quarters of their income. A violent impact which could have been catastrophic for many of them.

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Fabrice Breithaupt has been a journalist and PR editorial secretary since 1995. He deals with Franco-Swiss cross-border issues, but also real estate, employment and training.More info

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