Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labour, Full Employment and Integration was the guest of the 8:30 a.m. franceinfo, Thursday, November 3, 2022. Residence permit for “jobs in tension”, compensation of employees, reform of unemployment insurance… He answered questions from Lorrain Sénéchal and Neila Latrous.
Residence permits for “jobs in tension”: “Put an end to a form of hypocrisy”
By creating a residence permit for “jobs in tension”the government intends “put an end to a form of hypocrisy”, explains Olivier Dussopt. Like the Minister of the Interior the day before, he insists: “It’s not a massive regularization plan”. The Minister of Labor specifies that the government “is not on an idea of quotas”. According to him, “this method may seem attractive but it is not really operational”.
Olivier Dussopt recalls that there is already a list of occupations in tension. This list, which includes “about thirty professions and sectors are fixed by decree”. It will be revised “early 2023”. The Minister of Labor “wants to allow workers who are useful to our economy to apply for regularization themselves”. Because currently, with the Valls circular, the“employer accompanies the process and undertakes to keep” his employee.
“Quicker” sanctions against bosses who resort to undeclared work
Ministers Olivier Dussopt and Gérald Darmanin unveiled Wednesday the main lines of the immigration bill, which will be examined in early 2023 in the Senate and the National Assembly. With this text, the government also wants to impose harsher penalties on business leaders who “deliberately use workers in an irregular situation”. “We are thinking about quicker sanctions. And quick sanctions are administrative sanctions”, adds Olivier Dussopt. He is thinking of fines or administrative closures.
Unemployment insurance: the executive “opposed” to two provisions added by the Senate
Unemployment insurance reform will not be enough “obviously” not respond to recruitment difficulties, concedes Olivier Dussopt. But according to him, “it is one of the tools because we must not neglect the issues of training, mobility and attractiveness of professions”. But on this last point, “the ball is in the court of the social partners”he believes.
The Minister of Labor ensures that he “there will be a text at the end of the year”. He believes that right-wing senators have “integrated a number of provisions that go in the right direction”. The Senate also adopted amendments to deprive of unemployment benefits, temporary employees who refuse a permanent contract and employees on fixed-term contracts who refuse three fixed-term contracts in the same year. “We are opposed on behalf of the government to these two provisions”says Olivier Dussopt.
Compensation of employees: “the branches must do the work”
During his interview on France 2, Wednesday October 26, Emmanuel Macron once again put forward the idea of a “employee dividend”, evoking a binding mechanism. This is a campaign promise from the Head of State. For now, companies don’t want to hear about it. “I proposed to the social partners, employers’ organizations and trade unions, to open an interprofessional negotiation with the search for a majority agreement on the question of the sharing of value”, says Olivier Dussopt. He specifies “that all the social partners, with the exception of the CGT” agree to open discussions “early 2023” to eventually reach an agreement “within three to four months”. The Minister of Labor warns: “If there is no agreement, the government will take its responsibilities”.
On the other hand, Olivier Dussopt is not in favor of the organization of a major conference for salaries, as demanded by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. “We have already taken a number of measures last summer to push for better social dialogue in the branches”, argues the Minister of Labor. For him, it is necessary “let the branches do the work” and “when companies can increase wages, they must do so to enable their employees to cope with inflation”.
—————
Find the entire “8:30 franceinfo” of Thursday, November 3: