Will it solve the recruitment crisis in France?
The National Assembly voted on Tuesday evening the key measure of the unemployment insurance reform project.
It opens the way to a possible modulation of the duration of compensation according to the situation of the labor market, under the protests of the left and the RN.
In first reading, the deputies adopted by 203 votes against 165 the first article of this bill.
They will continue on Wednesday the examination of this text, expected in session in the Senate on October 25.
This article makes it possible to extend the current unemployment insurance rules, resulting from a disputed reform of the first Macron five-year term.
Overseas territories exempted
It also opens up the possibility, by decree, of modulating unemployment insurance so that it is "stricter when too many jobs are unfilled, more generous when unemployment is high", in the words of Emmanuel Macron during the presidential campaign.
After a consultation phase of six to eight weeks with the social partners, the government will decide by decree on the form that this modulation will take, for entry into force at the start of 2023. The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt also confirmed in the hemicycle a “very differentiated application for the overseas territories”, which are harder hit by unemployment.
A society of “full employment” rather than “staying at home”
The deputies adopted an amendment by Olivier Serva (Liot) to this effect, after a brief imbroglio on the order of examination of the amendments in session.
The executive insists that the reform is urgent, due to recruitment difficulties in sectors such as hotels, restaurants and construction.
It makes it one of the conditions for achieving the objective of full employment in 2027, i.e. an unemployment rate of around 5% against 7.4% currently.
Renaissance MP Karl Olive defended a "society of full employment and work", rather than "the society
of staying at home
when you can go to work".
Protests from the left and the RN
Left and RN pounded a "blank check" left to the government for this reform.
This text "declares war on the unemployed", thundered the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot.
“The assisted are not those whom you persecute, but those who sit at the top, to whom you bow”, she launched to the majority.
RN Caroline Colombier challenged the government's "authoritarian method".
The tone rose when the communist Sébastien Jumel reproached the macronists for having chosen as rapporteur for this text on unemployment insurance "the deputy of the French in Switzerland" Marc Ferracci (elected from the 6th constituency of the French abroad) , “Can you imagine the disconnection!
“Philippe Vigier (MoDem) and Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet (Renaissance) denounced “personal attacks”, while all deputies have the “same legitimacy”.
