A few days before the summer break, the Minister of Labor presented, to the social partners who have accepted her invitation well, the main directions which could guide the negotiations of a new and umpteenth reform of unemployment insurance … if the unions agree to debate it.
Another one. Less than a year after the entry into force of the new unemployment insurance agreement, the government already wishes to reform the compensation rules for job seekers. Monday, July 21, the Minister of Labor and Employment, Astrid Panosyan -Bouvet, presented to the CFDT and the CFTC – the only unions who agreed to meet her following the budgetary announcements of François Bayrou last week – the main directions which should appear in the framing letter of the next negotiations …
Provided that the social partners agree to discuss yet another system aimed at protecting assets looking for a new job. Something far from won, at this stage of exchanges with the government.
“I don’t know even if we are going to go there they want to harden everything!” Warn Cyril Chabanier, president of the CFTC, with BFM Business.
Bring the duration of compensation to the European average
And for good reason: even if the ministry has been careful not to detail its intentions, the main guidelines revealed to the social partners announce a tightening for the beneficiaries of France Work.
“They presented comparative tables with other countries, suggesting that the maximum duration of compensation for the unemployed in France, which is 18 months, is greater than the European average which revolves around 15 months,” says Cyril Chabanier.
However, according to data compared by Unédic in a study published in October 2024, the maximum compensation duration amounts to 24 months in Germany, two years maximum over a period of three years in Denmark, just under two years in Spain (720 days).
The rules are nevertheless more rigid in Finland, where the maximum compensation duration is 10 to 16 months, depending on the seniority and age of the job seeker. Even more severe, unemployment insurance in Great Britain only covers British workers for six months … the minimum duration currently in force in France!
Currently in France, any job seeker being entitled to unemployment affects allowances for at least six months and maximum 18 months for people under 55, 22.5 months for the unemployed of 55 and 56 years and 27 months for those over 57.
Extend the affiliation period to open unemployment rights
Contacted by BFM Business, the Ministry of Labor and Employment nevertheless ensures that it is not envisaged, at this stage, to modify the parameters relating to the duration of compensation of job seekers. “It is rather the decrease in the reference period of affiliation (PRA) which would have an impact on the duration of compensation”, it is said while stressing that the ideas submitted to the social partners remain “vague” at this stage of the exchanges and that they will not be specified until the negotiations, if they take place.
Nothing decided on the duration of compensation therefore … but it would be a question of acting on the PRA which is used to calculate unemployment rights.
“We should have worked more to be compensated,” said the president of the CFTC with BFM Business.
Enough to recall the project initially led by Gabriel Attal, when he was still Prime Minister, in the spring of 2024, before he fell to water under the effect of the dissolution of the National Assembly. The former tenant of Matignon and now secretary general of the Renaissance party provided indeed to extend the minimum working time carried out, over a reference period shortened at 20 months instead of two years for children under 57 or 30 months for the older on 6 to 8 months. By hardening the compensation rules, the former head of government hoped to achieve 3.6 billion euros in full year.
Currently, to be entitled to unemployment, job seekers must have worked at least six months over a period of two years if they are under 55, or at least six months for a period of 36 months if they are older.
The Specter of the White Year
And that’s not all. As Prime Minister François Bayrou announced last week, to generate 43.8 billion euros in savings from 2026, a white year is envisaged for all budgets, except the defense, of which President Emmanuel Macron has promised an increase of 6.5 billion euros in two years.
As a result, job seekers should not escape the freezing of their unemployment benefits, in the same way as pensions for retirees and other social benefits paid to the beneficiaries of the Family Allowance Fund (CAF), such as housing aid or activity premiums. In other words: unemployment benefits paid by France work to job seekers are likely to be valued by the board of directors of Unédic, taking into account the economic context, and de facto, inflation. “This is the triple pain!” Steps the president of the CFTC, Cyril Chabanier.
Limit abuse of conventional ruptures
Another explosive project which should be added to the negotiations of the unemployment insurance reform, the conventional ruptures: a device which would have been “devoured” according to the Minister of Labor and Employment Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet.
Among the assumptions put on the table, in particular is an extension of the deficiency period, that is to say the period during which the employee having negotiated a contractual termination with his company is not entitled to unemployment insurance.
“They really want to put pressure on the employees because they consider that people who have conventional ruptures have too high salaries. However, they forget that this is a managerial decision,” denounces Jocelyne Cabanal, confederal secretary of the CFDT to BFM Business.
The current regulations provide a minimum period of seven days. The more the employee receives compensation from his company, the more the deficiency period before having the right to unemployment is getting longer. The maximum delay is however capped at a maximum of five months.
An inter -union mobilization at the start of the school year?
Nevertheless: at this stage exchanges with the ministry, there is no guarantee that negotiations, to reform unemployment insurance, by introducing this reflection on conventional ruptures, are really held.
Tuesday, eight unions – CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE -CGC, CFTC, UNSA, FSU and Solidaires – launched a petition on the Change.org platform to obtain the abandonment of the budgetary measures presented to Frranish Bayrou. At a time when we write these lines, she has already collected more than 155,000 signatures. What is more, the CFDT, the CGT, FO, the CFE-CGC and the CFTC do not exclude an inter-union mobilization at the start of the school year.
However, if the negotiations open again to the unemployment insurance system, the savings expected by the government would amount to “2.5 billion euros in 2026 and between 4 and 5 billion euros in 2030”, the president of the CFTC Coftc Cyril Chabanier told BFM.
