Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt goes back to the parliamentary niche. After several months of heated debate on the pension reform, the discussions will this time focus on the Full-Employment bill, which should allow, as its name suggests, to fall below the 5% unemployment mark in France, and this, before the end of the five-year term in 2027. A goal deemed unattainable by many economists, but which remains in force, assured Olivier Dussopt on Public Senate Monday morning.
The LR opposition in the Senate, where the debates open this Monday afternoon, has already identified points of friction with the government, in particular with regard to the transformation of Pôle Emploi into France Travail. “I am convinced that we can find much more convergence than differences,” said the Minister of Labor, who must count on the right-wing senatorial majority for the adoption of the text. Nearly 500 amendments were tabled by senators, all political groups combined.
The creation of the France Travail network makes it possible to have the same entry procedure for all people looking for work or encountering integration difficulties, whatever door they knock on (Pôle Emploi, Cap’Emploi, local assignments…). The government text plans to rename Pôle Emploi with the same name as that of the network, France Travail, so as to make the institution the spearhead of this transformation of employment policy. The majority right-wing opposition sees this as a source of “confusion” and proposes to keep the name of Pôle Emploi.
Another controversial measure of the government’s “Plein-Emploi” bill: the introduction of renewed support for RSA recipients with the sensitive issue of 15 to 20 hours per week of activity (immersions, refresher courses, writing RESUME…). “True solidarity is helping to get out” of the RSA, pleaded Olivier Dussopt on Public Senate. Today only 40% of the beneficiaries of the active solidarity income (RSA) are at Pôle emploi.
According to the government’s initial plan, each member of France Travail will sign “a contract of engagement”, including RSA recipients and young people followed by local missions. The senators provided in committee that this contract sets a weekly duration of at least 15 hours of activity, while the government favors flexibility to take into account specific situations.
In the same “logic of rights and duties”, the bill makes it easier to implement sanctions for recipients who do not respect their obligations. Before the ax of deregistration – little applied – the payment of the active solidarity income may be suspended in the event of a breach, with retroactive regularization when the person again respects his commitments. The senators limited to three months of RSA the sums which could thus be paid retroactively. Two motions of rejection as a whole have been tabled on this bill which should see two visions of society clash.
The text has two other parts: one which aims to improve the access of people with disabilities to employment in the ordinary environment and the other on early childhood which recognizes the municipalities as “organizing authorities” of reception, with a mission to identify needs, inform families and build the offer.