The Senate, with a right-wing majority, gave this Tuesday, against the advice of the Government, a twist to the bill on unemployment insurance, examined at first reading, by voting to exclude the benefit of compensation for people who they rejected three CDI Offers at the end of a CDD.
Approved on October 12 in first reading by the National Assembly, this text initially plans to extend the current unemployment insurance rules, the result of a disputed reform of Macron’s first five-year term and which expire on November 1. It also triggers the possibility, by decree, of modulating unemployment insurance according to the labor market, Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise.
The current system “continues to be built to respond to a concept of massive unemployment, without being a sufficient incentive to return to employment,” declared the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, noting that “60% of companies have difficulty hiring” . This modulation or “countercyclical” mechanism is currently the subject of consultation between the government and the social partners that “should last 6 to 8 weeks to be completed by the end of the year”, specified Olivier Dussopt.
Back to “true work values”
The rapporteurs Frédérique Puissat (LR) and Olivier Henno (centrist) fully enshrined this principle of modulation in law, with the support of the minister. Olivier Dussopt, for his part, was unfavorable to another measure presented in committee, which establishes that a job seeker who has rejected three CDI proposals at the end of a CDD cannot be entitled to unemployment insurance.
LR senators, including its leader Bruno Retailleau, failed to toughen this provision on the floor. An amendment that provided for the deprivation of compensation in case of first refusal was rejected with extreme precision. Laurent Duplomb (LR) defended the goal of returning to the “true values of work”, Frédérique Puissat believes that “we cannot make life decisions that are paid for by insurance systems”. “We just have to eliminate the unemployment benefit”, Monique Lubin (PS) was carried away by the left, denouncing “a shallot race”. The Senate then approved another amendment to the LR aimed at excluding temporary workers from unemployment benefits who do not accept a CDI offered in the position they occupy in the interim.
Regarding the provision that equates “abandonment of office” with resignation, introduced in the Assembly by reforms of the presidential majority and the LR, the senators specified the applicable procedure to “ensure” it.
“Denial of Solidarity”
The left opposes a text that “stigmatizes job seekers and passes them off as profiteers”, according to Monique Lubin. The PS and Ecologiste groups contributed their votes to a procedural motion of the CRCE, mostly communist, aimed at outright rejection of the bill. However, it was rejected by 252 votes against 92. Cathy Apourceau-Poly (CRCE) denounced “a denial of solidarity”. “Our chances of improving this text are slim to none,” said Laurence Rossignol, noting “many points of convergence” between the government and the senatorial right.
“To return the hand to the social partners”, the senators rewrote the first article of the text that provides for the extension – no later than December 31, 2023 – of the current rules of unemployment insurance. The deadline has been moved to August 31. This period “should be used to start consultations aimed at changing the governance of unemployment insurance,” said Frédérique Puissat. “Without comprehensive and profound reform, the whole system will be dead,” warned the centrist Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe.
Opposed to the rewriting of the senators, the minister recalled for his part that he had committed himself to opening negotiations on governability. Another point rectified by the senators in committee: the parameters of the bonus-malus, a device that aims to limit short contracts. In particular, they excluded from the system the effects of repos. Another part of the bill provides for facilitating the validation of experience gained (VAE). Senators want to open it up even more. The Senate will continue examining the articles in the afternoon. Once the text has been voted by the High Assembly in the first reading, deputies and senators will try to agree on a common version in a joint joint commission.
Source: BFM TV
