The Ministry of Labor reviews its copy. With a draft decree sent to the social partners on Wednesday 12 May and that Capital has obtained, it seeks to correct certain unintended effects of the unemployment insurance reform. As a reminder, a study by Unédic, carried out at the request of Force Ouvrière and unveiled last April, showed that employees who had been on short-time work, on maternity leave or even on sick leave risked seeing their unemployment benefit significantly reduced. In question, the modification of the calculation rules of the daily reference wage (SJR), which must come into force on July 1 and on which depends the amount of unemployment benefits.
Currently, the denominator of the SJR (duration of activity) is calculated only from the days worked by the job seeker. But from July 1, 2021, it will be calculated on the basis of the average monthly income received by the job seeker over a period of 24 months (or even 36 for those over 53). This method of calculation will therefore be less favorable to job seekers, since periods of inactivity will also be taken into account in the calculation of compensation. This will greatly reduce the SJR, and therefore the amount of unemployment benefits.
Until now, all exceptional periods of inactivity occurring during an employment contract, and during which the employee’s remuneration is reduced (partial unemployment, maternity / paternity / adoption leave, sick leave) have been “neutralized”. Except that in the context of the overhaul of the method of calculating the daily reference wage, this neutralization may have a negative impact: the days not worked could be more important than the days worked taken into account in the denominator of the SJR. This would lead to reducing it even further for these employees.
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Introduction of a “fictitious salary”
In reaction to the publication of this study by Unédic, the Ministry of Labor decided to rectify the situation. And the solution found to solve this problem is, on paper, relatively simple. The idea is to reconstitute a “fictitious salary”, which will be integrated into the SJR for employees who have experienced one or more periods of partial unemployment, sick leave or maternity / paternity / adoption leave. This notional salary will be set on the basis of the average salary (excluding bonuses) received by the employee under the employment contract during which the period of inactivity occurs. This reconstitution will be carried out provided that the beneficiary is able to send documents justifying his or her period (s) of partial unemployment, sick leave or maternity / paternity / adoption leave.
As part of the reconstitution of this fictitious salary, the compensation received during the exceptional event (partial unemployment, maternity / paternity leave, sick leave), which is logically lower than the employee’s normal remuneration, will not be considered. . This episode of inactivity will therefore be taken into account in the calculation of the SJR, as if the remuneration received by the employee during this period was at its normal level. If several periods of inactivity occur during the same contract, it is therefore always the same average salary that will be applied to these periods.
This corrective text should not, however, calm union opposition to this reform. All the more so as a more recent study by Unédic has highlighted another problem linked to the reform of unemployment insurance: the amplification of a perverse effect which will penalize benefit recipients combining employment and unemployment. And no less than four trade union organizations have already announced that they intended to file appeals before the Council of State to counter this reform: the CGT, CFDT, Force Ouvrière and CFE-CGC. Despite this strong opposition, Elisabeth Borne did not give up: “the reform will come into force on July 1,” said the Minister of Labor on Wednesday, May 12, at the microphone of France Info.
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