While the government brought together parliamentarians from all sides on Thursday March 28 to try to find savings, the announcement of a new unemployment insurance reform was greeted by a barrage of criticism from the ranks of the unions and the opposition.
The day before, on TF1, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal asked his Minister of Labor, Catherine Vautrin, “to prepare new negotiations” with the social partners on unemployment insurance, putting forward among the possibilities a reduction in the duration of compensation of 18 to 12 months maximum. A proposal that the union organizations immediately deemed “unacceptable”.
When the opposition parties accuse the executive, in search of savings measures, of wanting to “pick the pockets of the French”, Catherine Vautrin assures that the reform aims above all to “bring people back to employment”, with a support and training effort.
“The Prime Minister has opened avenues because our priority is social dialogue,” the minister said Thursday on Franceinfo. To do this, we must “try to provide support as quickly as possible” because “the longer you stay unemployed, the less likely you are to find a job,” she argued.
Asked about the unemployment insurance surplus, Ms. Vautrin assured that “the trajectory is 11 billion in 2027” and recalled that this system “allows training to be financed”. “It’s a social investment to support those who are unemployed because it allows them to bounce back,” she added.
“Negotiating position”
But for the unions, this new reform is above all motivated by budgetary considerations. “The only thing announced by Gabriel Attal this evening is still hitting the precarious or the unemployed,” reacted Denis Gravouil, CGT negotiator on unemployment insurance. “The unemployment insurance system cannot be a state budgetary adjustment variable,” warned the general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon.
Returning to the “tracks” mentioned by Gabriel Attal, who called for a new “global” reform of unemployment insurance by the fall, Ms. Vautrin explained that the announcements by the head of government first constitute “a position negotiation” with the social partners.
“How long do you have to work in a given period to benefit from unemployment? » Today “in two years, you have to have worked six months. It’s up for debate,” she said. Another subject would be “the duration of compensation”, today 18 months as a general rule, she assured, recalling that the Prime Minister did not favor the track of the amount of compensation.
