Bercy will ask for participation from employees

The CPF is a victim of its success. To save money, the government announced on Monday that it was going to impose a “flat rate contribution” to employees who want to use their personal training account.

The Minister of Public Accounts, Thomas Cazenave, announced Monday February 19, as part of the 10 billion additional savings planned this year, the government will ask employees to pay for part of their training, when they use their account professional training (CPF). A flat rate will be introduced, where before the training could be covered 100%. The amount of this remaining charge has not yet been fixed, but it will surely be 10% of the price of the training. Except for job seekers, who will be exempt from this remaining charge.

The CPF is now widely used. Last year, more than 1.25 million employees used it and now the government is tightening the screws. It is used to take language lessons, learn new skills technical, IT, to obtain certification, or even to pass the driving license, one of the main uses of the CPF. And since the 1^er January 2024, the motorcycle license can also be financed via the CPF, which is controversial. Employers particularly denounce training courses that are removed from the world of work, just for fun. According to Dares, 17% of files validated by the CPF do not have a professional purpose.

In this context, and while it is looking for money, the Ministry of the Economy has been pushing, for months, for the establishment of a remainder. Bercy therefore won the game and hopes to make 200 million euros in savings on the two billion euros that the CPF costs public finances each year.

The unions are standing up against

There have already been savings on the CPF, this is also the argument of the unions, CFDT and CGT, who are strongly opposed to this announcement. Everyone recalls that, thanks to tracking down CPF abuse and fraud, more than a billion euros in savings have already been made last year. For them, establishing an additional charge amounts to betraying the initial promise of the CPF. When it was launched by Muriel Pénicaud, then Minister of Labor, the CPF was presented as a simple, easy tool, intended to encourage employees to train.

It should primarily target the least qualified, the most modest, the workers, the precarious. According to them, providing this financial participation risks not only slowing down the training dynamic, but also creating inequalities, since only those who have the means will then be able to train. But if Bercy wants to move quickly, and ratify this remaining liability very quickly from the spring, the Ministry of Labor intends to discuss first with the social partners.