Negotiations for Next Unemployment Insurance Agreement Enter Difficult Phase

After sessions mainly devoted to going through the studies requested from Unédic on the aspects of the regulations that they would like to see evolve, the social partners are entering into the hard part of the negotiation for the next unemployment insurance agreement. The employers will submit to the unions this Wednesday a first version of a draft agreement, the objective being to find a voice of passage by mid-November, despite the little room for maneuver that the government has left them in its framing letter.

“A complete text, probably not. Rather a detailed plan,” warns the leader of the negotiations for Medef, Hubert Mongon. Bilateral discussions will make it possible to refine it between now and Wednesday, knowing that the CFDT and FO must also make a proposal to reconcile points of view on the seniors section.

The senior sector in question

The employers absolutely want the negotiation to include the increase in the legal retirement age to 64 so that unemployment insurance no longer serves as a “disguised retirement fund”, insists Hubert Mongon. The unions, for their part, do not want to let go of anything on the age lines until employers have demonstrated their goodwill during the next inter-professional negotiation on the employment of seniors.

In the meantime, this Thursday’s negotiation session allowed those interested to take note of an initial, mixed assessment of one of the reforms of the rules imposed by the executive during Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term: degression until ‘to 30% of benefits for unemployed people under 57 who earned more than 4,500 euros gross per month.

Suspended during Covid, the measure came into force for all contract endings occurring from 1^is July 2021: first in a relaxed version, degression after 8 months, then restored as initially desired (6 months) for those from 1^is December 2021.

Last June, of the 93,500 eligible beneficiaries, 45,000 suffered a reduction in their allowance, for a third of 30%, the others less due to the establishment of a floor, the daily allowance cannot go down in below 91.02 euros. Unsurprisingly, these are mainly male executives over the age of 45 whose last contract ended mainly with a contractual termination or dismissal.

Lower job return rate

First lesson, the return to employment rate of beneficiaries registered with Pôle emploi in 2021 and eligible for degression is lower than that of other beneficiaries: 37% found a work contract in the year following their entitlement, compared to 58% for unaffected beneficiaries. It remains to be seen whether, although remaining lower, the rate has increased or not as a result of the measure.

An Unédic survey carried out among a quarter of the unemployed who opened a right in 2022 this time and who were also eligible shows that the measure seems to have had an incentive effect, but limited. While all those concerned testify to a feeling of “injustice with regard to the years worked” and a drop in their quality of life once the drop has taken effect, 10% to 15% of them declare having accelerated their search for work. employment under its effect.

Take more time

Precisely, one in four beneficiaries returned to salaried employment, the vast majority on permanent full-time contracts in an executive position, even if half of them had lowered their salary expectations. Around 10% of them responded that they would not have taken this job without the degression.

For those who had an entrepreneurial spirit, i.e. one in three beneficiaries eligible for the degression, around 15% say they would have acted differently without the degression. “They would have taken more time to set up their project or would have continued to look for paid employment,” underlines Unédic.