Unemployment insurance. What makes debate – France

This is another sensible reform that is looming. The negotiations on unemployment insurance will focus on the explosion of short-term contracts, on the one hand, and the accumulation of "salary-allowance", on the other, accused by the government of curbing the return to work sustainable and to deepen deficits. The social partners met Wednesday at Unédic headquarters to stall the agenda of the negotiations, which promises to be difficult.

Short contracts that explode

While the distribution of different forms of employment is stable, with nearly 80% of employees on permanent contracts (permanent contracts), the vast majority of hirings are in contracts of less than one month, a figure which tripled in twenty years. One-third of fixed-term contracts last only one day.

The number of beneficiaries of short contracts, however, has increased little because two thirds are … rehired. According to Unedic, 400,000 people have an "ongoing relationship" with their employer, with at least four short six-month fixed-term contracts.

These contracts are mainly used in services, including hotels and restaurants, health, market research, audiovisual, arts and entertainment, etc. These companies cite the fluctuation of their activity and the demands of customer responsiveness.

Others put forward their obligations of continuity of service as in the medico-social establishments. In cleanliness, 75% of fixed-term contracts are replacement contracts (sickness, paid leave, etc.).

The Unedic also advances the recourse without control to the "CDD of use" (without limitation of duration or renewal) reserved for about thirty collective agreements but used in more than 200 … Finally, the exemptions on the low wages have reduced the interest in undeclared work.

More and more recipients working

At the end of 2017, 46% of the beneficiaries were working (except intermittent entertainment), half of whom, or 865,000 people, combined compensation and activity. This compensation was on average 652 euros and was added to a salary of 963 euros gross.

Accumulation aims to encourage job seekers to rework, if only for a few days, and extend their compensation period accordingly. It benefits both those who have taken over a permanent contract, a fixed-term contract, an interim badignment … or people with multiple employers and lose one, such as a maternal badistant. Cumulation has increased significantly as a result of a 2014 reform removing the different thresholds to qualify for it.

In 2018, cumulative compensation amounted to 5.4 billion, or 15% of total unemployment benefits. However, cumulation has also, according to Unedic, the effect of "slowing the consumption of rights and limiting the volume of allowances paid each month".

Cumulation, a brake to sustainable employment?

The government believes that some rules do not encourage a return to full activity. In particular, he points to the "reloading of rights" (if one has worked at least 150 hours during his period of unemployment, one can extend his compensation by the same amount), which makes it possible to keep a reduced activity unlimited. The same argument is made on the employer side, particularly in sectors that have difficulty recruiting.

However, the majority of people accumulated earn less than the Smic and studies show that the CDI remains "the ideal" job seekers. In fact, people in precarious employment have more difficulty in obtaining housing, access to credit, training, etc.

In 2017, the social partners have already changed the rules which, until then, actually made it more interesting for an employee to split his employment contracts. This should eventually reduce compensation paid by 400 million euros per year.

A bonus-malus against abuse?

For the government, employers who abuse short-term contracts minimize their salary costs by having their "off-peak periods" financed by unemployment insurance, and thus ultimately by "virtuous" companies that employ permanent contracts.

Hence the idea of ​​varying the employer contribution to unemployment insurance, currently 4.05%, depending on the rate of termination of contracts giving rise to registration at Pôle emploi. A presidential promise strongly supported by the unions.

But the employers do not want such a bonus-malus and refers to negotiations at the branch level on the "moderation" of the use of short contracts, decided in February but which have, for now, led only in metallurgy and cleanliness.