Government to Implement New Compensation Rules for Job Seekers on July 1, Tightening Regulations In Response to Social Partner Disagreement

The government will set new compensation rules for job seekers from July 1, taking into account the “disagreement” between the social partners, according to a press release on Monday from the Ministry of Labor. The executive will issue a “deficit order” which will be “aimed at enhancing the achievement of full employment and encouraging a rapid return to employment for unemployed people receiving benefits”, it revealed. in a press release. As in 2019, employers and unions are once again losing control of the interpretation of these rules to the benefit of the executive.

The ministry recalls that “the social partners were unable to find an agreement in the negotiation related to the Life at Work Agreement, which concerned the employment of the elderly, professional retraining and the universal time savings account (Cetu)” from December. He says that “the result of this negotiation was a condition that the unemployment insurance agreement of November was implemented, “so that it would be -similar to the summer 2023 framework document” which provided savings on compensation for senior jobseekers.

Unemployment insurance was regulated by a deficit decree that expired at the end of 2023, but its validity was extended by six months by a “binding” decree until June 30. Without waiting for the outcome of the discussions about the employment of the elderly, said the Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced in January that they wanted to “go further in unemployment insurance reform”.

Last week, he recalled three levers to tighten the rules: the duration of the compensation, the attachment condition, i.e. the time you had to have worked for compensation, and the level of the compensation this. While emphasizing “the three possibilities [étaient] open”, he had said he preferred to tighten the tie.

The unions, which had strongly fought the controversial 2019 and 2023 reforms, had earlier called on the government in mid-March to abandon the new reform, believing that it was necessary to “stop the stigma of the republic of the unemployed”.