The government is considering reviewing the system which allows an employment contract to be amicably terminated. For Matignon, this mechanism does not encourage people to look for or return to work.
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The idea comes from above, from Matignon, with the support of the Élysée. This is currently only one avenue under study, says those around Élisabeth Borne, but it involves reforming this system which allows an employer and an employee to amicably terminate a permanent contract. . With a conventional termination, the employee benefits from unemployment benefits, unlike a resignation, and for the employer this avoids disputes which sometimes end up before the industrial tribunal, everyone benefits. It is a kind of French flexibility, resulting from an agreement between unions and employers in 2008.
A system that works. According to the Directorate of Animation, Research, Studies and Statistics (Dares), which depends on the Ministry of Labor, there were 500,000 contractual terminations last year compared to 40,000 at the time of its creation. All sectors use it, services as well as industry and small as well as large businesses. But, at a time when it is seeking to reduce unemployment, the government sees the conventional termination as a real obstacle to returning to employment. For Élisabeth Borne, this system does not encourage people to look for or return to work because today, no one resigns. When you are fed up with your job, you ask your boss for a break and if he accepts, you can leave with compensation and you can have benefits which also weighs on the unemployment insurance system.
Unions and employers are rather reserved
Although originally, it was precisely to encourage companies to hire that the conventional termination saw the light of day. As employers feared not being able to part with their employees in the event of a dispute, or a drop in activity, they did not sign permanent contracts. But for the government, these arguments no longer apply because the 2018 ordinances established the industrial tribunal compensation scale and in the event of a drop in activity, there is partial unemployment. Especially today the job market has changed, many sectors lack workers and young people no longer necessarily want permanent contracts, according to Matignon’s analysis.
Of course, everyone recognizes possible abuses, but the bosses find the system simple and less costly than dismissal. They are attached to the flexibility of conventional termination. As for the unions, they do not want to lose the security for employees of having access to unemployment benefits. Tuesday, November 28, for example, Marylise Léon of the CFDT felt among our colleagues at FranceTV that we should rather question the reasons which push so many employees to request a conventional termination and raise the question of working conditions.