The unions have just received unexpected support in their fight against unemployment insurance reform: that of Muriel Pénicaud. The former Minister of Labor, who has just released a book, has returned to the reform of unemployment insurance which will apply from July 1. The one who left the government not necessarily at his request last summer recalled Wednesday evening on Paris Première that the reform had been “started by [elle] in the government of Edouard Philippe in a context that was very different: drop in unemployment, 450,000 job creations in 2019 ”.
She stressed that the insurance system must be “an incentive to return to work” but, she insisted, “there is a context, when we are in full growth and we are approaching the full employment [et] it is not the same context as when we have a crisis like today where there are a lot of uncertainties ”. Thursday morning, on RTL, the one who is now the permanent representative of France at the OECD was made more precise. “I am not commenting on the government’s action, but we must continue to discuss because we really need a reform adapted to the context,” she said.
“A roll of the dice”
This is not the first time that a member of the former government team has taken such a position. As soon as the changes to the reform decided in 2019 were known, the chief of staff of Muriel Pénicaud at the ministry, Antoine Foucher, judged that the measures announced “are similar [nt] to a roll of the dice, because […] nobody knows what the job market will look like after the Covid-19 epidemic ”.
But the weight of the criticism is this time reinforced by the fact that it is the one who preceded it itself which soaps the board of Elisabeth Borne. Especially since Muriel Pénicaud’s call to continue the discussion “with the social partners” comes when the consultation is considered as definitively closed by the government.
Weakened reform
This position contributes to politically weakening a reform denounced as unfair, with supporting examples, by the unions and already undermined by the quack on people who have been on partial unemployment, maternity or sick leave. The Unedic pointed out the risk of illegality of the solution found by the Ministry of Labor in an amending decree.
This alert reinforces the legal risk run by the government while the CGT, CFDT, FO and CFE-CGC have coordinated each other to file an appeal this Friday against the reform of unemployment insurance before the Council of State. .
Obtain the suspension of the decree
The objective of the four appeals is initially to obtain the suspension of the decree of March 31 and thus prevent the entry into force of the reform on 1is July, before a judgment on the merits which the unions hope that it cancels at least one of the pillars of the reform: the revision of the formula of the daily reference wage (SJR) which serves as the basis for the calculation of the allowance.
It would not be the first time. The CGT has already obtained from the highest administrative court the cancellation of the rule for calculating the SJR contained in the initial version of the reform because it was considered discriminatory.
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