Legally and politically, the union centers wish to put in place different action plans to prevent the government from pushing through its unemployment insurance reform.
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The government has regained control of the unemployment insurance issue but the social partners are preparing the response. Unions and employers meet on Monday evening, June 3, at Force Ouvrière headquarters, to reconnect with each other after the failure of negotiations on the employment of seniors. They intend to see together how to weigh in on the debate, how to influence the government on the issues that arise.
After the unemployment insurance reform, there will be act two of the labor law, planned for the start of the school year. The government wants to include the universal time savings account, the four-day week, the elimination of certain social thresholds. These measures divide unions and employers, but also within the same employers. There is also at stake the preparation of the 2025 budget. To save money, the government is considering cutting social spending: reimbursement of work stoppages and the indexation of various benefits are in the sights.
However, for the moment, the urgent issue is the unemployment insurance issue, the unions, like the CFDT, are preparing to contest the decree which must enact the reform. They want to attack it before the Council of State and they are preparing legal appeal. FO is already looking, for example, in the name of equality between job seekers, at how to challenge the senior employment bonus, which the government wants to introduce. This bonus should allow unemployed seniors to return to a job that is less well paid than the one they held, without loss of salary, with unemployment insurance supplementing it.
The unions think that it could be discriminatory to reserve this system for over 57s. In 2019, they challenged unemployment insurance reform measures and won on a few points. They had thus delayed the implementation of the reform by a few months…
We should not expect demonstrations because for job seekers, the French do not mobilize as they do for pensions. On Sunday, Sophie Binet of the CGT said, for example, that this reform posed an additional threat to the Olympics, because employees on fixed-term contracts, on temporary contracts, who will work on the event, will be the big losers from the reform. They will have to work longer to be compensated. For the leader of the CGT, it is therefore legitimate for them to strike.
Finally, the unions have also allied with the Liot group in the National Assembly, which is proposing a counter-bill on unemployment insurance and will use its parliamentary niche on June 13 to present it. Legally, politically, the centrals are seeking all means to prevent the government from pushing through its reform.