Controversy Surrounds Financing of Unemployment Insurance in France Travail Negotiations

The executive wants to contribute 12% to 13% of its revenue to unemployment insurance (Unédic) by 2026, compared to 11% today, as part of France Travail financing.

Negotiations between the social partners on the new unemployment insurance rules enter into hard Friday: the participants are contesting the financing planned by the France Travail government, which will replace Pôle emploi on January 1st. After a first meeting on the calendar, on September 12, the negotiators meet at the Unédic headquarters in Paris, to try to find an agreement by November 10.

France Travail will need additional resources to support nearly 2 million RSA beneficiaries for whom it will be responsible, in addition to the unemployed. To the great dismay of the social partners, the executive wants to contribute 12% to 13% of its revenue to unemployment insurance (Unédic) by 2026, compared to 11% today, according to the letter from framework sent by the government to trade unions and employers’ organizations on August 1.

Trade union organizations contest the government’s framework letter

The Medef contests “fundamentally the elements of the framework document which proposes co-financing of Unédic to France Travail”, recalled at the beginning of September Hubert Mongon, the leader of the negotiators of the main employers’ organization. According to him, “we cannot accept that the State continues to blur the responsibilities and methods of financing the various employment policy measures.”

“The trade union organizations say together that the framework letter on unemployment insurance is unacceptable, that they refuse to comply with it and that they want to be able to negotiate in complete autonomy,” declared the general secretary on Thursday. of the CGT Sophie Binet, during her back-to-school press conference. “All the union organizations agree that we are going to ‘push the framework'”, also assured FO number one Frédéric Souillot, for whom “once again, the ‘croupiers of the State’ want get their hands on the money” from the social partners.

The 2018 law requires social partners to negotiate within the framework defined by the government, recalls Renaissance MP Marc Ferracci. “The social partners may not want to respect the framework document provided for by law. But in this case, the government will be justified in not endorsing the agreement that has been signed,” he explained.

Eight meetings in two months

Hubert Mongon expresses doubts about the amount of unemployment insurance surpluses planned by the government for the years to come, and which would allow Unédic to make greater contributions. “We observe substantial gaps between the work carried out by Unédic this summer and the macro-economic elements proposed to us by the government” on growth or the evolution of unemployment in the years to come, explained the employers’ negotiator . Unédic experts must present new projections to negotiators, according to Hubert Mongon.

The first meeting on September 12 made it possible to set a schedule of eight meetings between now and November 10. In addition to the short time allocated, the framework set by the government sets in stone the reforms already undertaken in recent years. The government document thus prohibits social partners from questioning the method of calculating compensation, which has been less favorable since 2019 for job seekers alternating between unemployment and short contracts.

There is also no question of returning to the modulation of compensation rules according to the economic situation: since February 1, 2023, the duration of compensation has been reduced by 25% and will only be extended in the event of significant deterioration. economic. This measure, like the new method of calculating compensation, is defended by employers. The latter, on the other hand, is opposed to the “bonus malus”, this upward or downward modulation of the unemployment insurance contribution rate of companies in certain sectors (transport for example) which abuse precarious contracts, “bonus malus ” which the government also wants to maintain.