Certainly, in the unions as in the government, no one says they believe in the existence of “sequences”. This is also one of the few points on which the two camps agree.
However, the presentation of the full employment bill to the Council of Ministers this Wednesday, June 7, strongly resembles an attempt by the executive to open a new chapter after the long struggle over pension reform.
With this set of eleven articles, the majority does nothing less than to accede to the main request of the CFDT, namely to “talk about work” and not only pensions. The purpose of the text is indeed to continue to improve the situation on the job market, in particular by facilitating “the integration of people furthest from work” and by “removing the peripheral brakes”, it is explained. at Matignon.
In the line of sight, the always assumed objective of the government to achieve full employment by the end of the five-year term. A target considered to have been reached when the unemployment rate drops below 5%, the theoretical threshold commonly used by economists.
Several projects will therefore see significant progress this Wednesday. The main file is the creation of France Travail. This organization, which is due to take over from Pôle emploi on 1 January 2024, has already been the subject of a detailed report by the High Commissioner for Employment and Business Engagement, Thibaut Guilluy, who submitted to the Department of Labor on April 17.
Concretely, the objective will be to offer a “faster” and “more personalized” return to work path. In particular by registering the minimum recipients, such as the RSA, directly with France Travail. But also to better guide job seekers by referring them to social services if necessary or other actors, such as local missions.
In addition, the executive wants to overhaul the contract of engagement signed between job seekers and the accompanying organization. The latter will have the role, if necessary, of fixing the level of commitment of the beneficiaries, which could go up to fifteen to twenty hours per week of steps of return to employment.
To ensure compliance, the sanctions will be reviewed to become “more progressive and more effective”, we explain to the government. A suspension of aid will thus be created with the possibility of retroactive payment if the recipient complies with his duties.
In parallel, several articles will be devoted to the improvement of people with disabilities. They take up in the form of a law the measures set out by the Head of State during the National Disability Conference (CNH) at the end of April.
Finally, a final section will be devoted to early childhood. The aim is to improve reception, in particular by increasing the number of places available, to avoid as far as possible that some parents find themselves forced to leave their work to take care of their child.
The parliamentary journey of the bill will begin in the Senate, which will examine it from the first half of July before passing to the National Assembly.
Steps that could lead to substantial changes to the text. “On certain aspects, such as the governance of France Travail, we can reach consensus. On the other hand, on the obligations of people deprived of employment and the commitments of the community towards them, there will certainly be differences between left and right”, recognizes Marc Ferracci, vice-president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly and leader of the majority working group on employment and value sharing issues.