employers and unions denounce an “unacceptable drain” from Unédic

The government wants to take two billion euros from 2023 by decree on Unédic surpluses, then two billion again in 2024, through the Social Security financing bill.

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A person stands in front of a Pôle emploi agency in Hyères (Var), July 9, 2022. (MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / AFP)

They stand together. Unions and employers denounced, Thursday September 28 in a joint declaration to which only the CGT did not associate itself, a “unacceptable puncture” of Unédic revenues by the government. They also affirmed that they would not take it into account in the continuation of their negotiations on new unemployment insurance rules.

The government intends to draw on Unédic’s surpluses (the joint body which manages the unemployment insurance scheme) two billion euros from 2023 by decree, then two billion again in 2024 through the Social Security financing bill.

“This plan to drain unemployment insurance revenue is unacceptable”

“Both in substance and method, this plan to drain unemployment insurance revenues, even though negotiations are underway, is unacceptable”, denounced the social partners in this joint declaration. The text was read by CFDT negotiator Olivier Guivarch, at the end of a negotiating session on new unemployment insurance rules.

This drain, which could reach an amount of between 3.5 and 4 billion euros in 2026, according to the framework letter sent by the government to the social partners, “obstructs the ability to discuss adjustments to the unemployment insurance agreement”, they estimate.

Through this action, the government wants to finance public employment and training policies as well as France Travail. This new organization will in fact need additional resources to support nearly two million RSA beneficiaries for whom it will be responsible, in addition to the unemployed. But the drain on the revenues of Unédic, which is heavily in debt, will force it to borrow in the short term on the markets to honor its repayment deadlines, which will cost it 800 million over four years.

Unions and employers consider that the framework within which the government has set the negotiation on the future of unemployment insurance “is based on an objectively questionable financial trajectory, which risks ultimately weakening the economic balance of the regime”.


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