Emmanuel Macron's unemployment insurance reforms
The government of French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday unveiled plans to make it harder to apply for benefits for the unemployed, as part of an overhaul of the French labor market aimed at boosting the country’s economy. What are these reforms made of?
Unemployment insurance reform
This reform partially entered into force in November 2019. However, due to the health and economic crisis linked to Covid-19, the government has decided to suspend its implementation. After several postponements, some of the reform measures resulting from the decree of March 30, 2021 will apply from July 1, 2021 (declining unemployment rights for the highest incomes and bonus-malus for companies in seven sectors).
Why do we need this reform?
The reform of unemployment insurance has three main objectives
● Fight against the abuse of short-term contracts, in particular by introducing a bonus-malus in unemployment compensation for companies in order to encourage them to employ long-term workers;
● By introducing new compensation rules to encourage people to return to work, it would pay to work and do nothing;
● Strengthen support for job seekers by recruiting 1,000 new Pôle Emploi advisers and setting up two half-days of intensive support.
● This reform should lead to savings. Unédic estimated in April 2021 that this will lead to a reduction in spending of around 2.3 billion euros per year at full speed, that is to say when the economy returns to a similar situation. than before the health crisis.
What are the phases of implementation of the reform?
The new unemployment insurance rules were specified in two decrees of July 26, 2019 (decree n ° 2019-797 and decree n ° 2019-796). These documents predicted that the reform would be implemented between November 2019 and January 2021. However, the Covid-19 epidemic disrupted this schedule:
● November 1, 2019: the first part of the reform enters into force. These measures concern the conditions of access to compensation, the reassessment of benefits, the degression of benefits for high incomes and the opening of benefits for retired workers and the self-employed;
● April 1, 2020: the second part of the reform should have entered into force, modifying the method of calculating unemployment benefits. It was postponed to September 1, 2020 due to the health crisis;
● In July 2020, the government decided to suspend the application of the two parts of the reform until January 1, 2021 in order to take into account the economic and social consequences of the metal-19 epidemic. The decree of July 29, 2020 temporarily sets the minimum working time for opening or renewing the right to unemployment benefits at four months instead of six months;
● November 2020: The government announced a further postponement of the reform to April 1, 2021. In addition, on November 25, 2020. Seized by several unions and employers, the Council of State revoked two provisions of the decree of July 26, 2019 : the bonus-malus for companies and the new method of calculating unemployment benefits. The Court ruled that these new calculation rules "violate the principle of equality" because they risk harming job seekers who alternate between periods of unemployment and short-term contracts;
● March 2021: in light of the decision of the Council of State, the government introduces a lower threshold which will limit the reduction of benefits compared to the old method of calculation. The decree of March 30, 2021 provides for the application of these new calculation rules and other reform measures from July 1, 2021;
● On June 22, 2021, the State Council suspended the entry into force of the new calculation method due to an overly unstable economic situation. The decree of June 29, 2021 extended the current compensation rules until September 30, 2021;
● July 1, 2021: Partial entry into force of the unemployment insurance reform. Two measures apply: a bonus-malus for companies in seven sectors and a degression of unemployment benefits for the highest incomes from the 9th month of benefit;
● October 1, 2021: the reform enters fully into force with a new method of calculating unemployment benefits;
● October 22, 2021: The Council of State confirms the application of the new calculation of unemployment benefits from October 1, considering that ”the general evolution of the labor market is no longer an obstacle to the implementation of the reform ”;
● December 1, 2021: If economic conditions allow, the minimum period of work for the open
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