The way towards a possible modulation of the duration of unemployment benefit according to the situation of the labor market is open. The National Assembly voted Tuesday evening this key measure of the unemployment insurance reform project, under protests from the left and the RN.
In first reading, the deputies adopted by 203 votes against 165 the first article of this bill. They will continue this Wednesday the examination of this text, expected in session in the Senate on October 25.
A disputed reform of the first five-year term
This article makes it possible to extend the current unemployment insurance rules, resulting from a disputed reform of the first Macron five-year term. It also opens up the possibility, by decree, of modulating unemployment insurance so that it is “stricter when too many jobs are unfilled, more generous when unemployment is high”, in the words of the Head of State. during the presidential campaign.
After a consultation phase of six to eight weeks with the social partners, the government will decide by decree on the form that this modulation will take, for entry into force at the start of 2023. The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt also confirmed in the hemicycle a “very differentiated application for the overseas territories”, which are harder hit by unemployment. An amendment to this effect by Olivier Serva, elected from Guadeloupe, was adopted by the deputies.
This text “declares war on the unemployed”, according to LFI
The executive insists that the reform of unemployment insurance is urgent, due to recruitment difficulties in sectors such as hotels, restaurants or construction. It makes it one of the conditions for achieving the objective of full employment in 2027, i.e. an unemployment rate of around 5% against 7.4% currently. Renaissance MP Karl Olive thus defended a “society of full employment and work”, rather than “the society of ‘staying at home’ when you can go to work”.
Left and RN, on the other hand, pounded a “blank check” left to the government for this reform. This text “declares war on the unemployed”, thundered the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot. “The assisted are not those whom you persecute, but those who sit at the top, to whom you bow”, she launched to the majority. The story was almost the same on the other side of the hemicycle concerning the rejection of the bill. RN Caroline Colombier thus challenged the government’s “authoritarian method”.
“Disconnection” versus “legitimacy”
The tone also rose when the communist Sébastien Jumel reproached the macronists for having chosen as rapporteur for this text on unemployment insurance “the deputy of the French of Switzerland” Marc Ferracci (elected from the 6th constituency of the French of the stranger), “Can you imagine the disconnection! “. Philippe Vigier (MoDem) and Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet (Renaissance) then denounced “personal attacks”, while all deputies have the “same legitimacy”.