Unions and employers denounced Thursday evening, September 28 in a joint declaration an “unacceptable drain” of Unédic revenues by the government and affirmed that they would not take it into account in the continuation of their negotiations on new rules of unemployment insurance. The government intends to take two billion euros from Unédic surpluses from 2023 by decree, then two billion again in 2024 through the Social Security financing bill.
“Both in substance and in method, this plan to drain unemployment insurance revenues, even though negotiations are underway, is unacceptable,” denounced the social partners in this joint declaration. The text was read by CFDT negotiator Olivier Guivarch at the end of a negotiating session on new unemployment insurance rules. This drain, which could reach an amount of between 3.5 and 4 billion euros in 2026, according to the framework letter sent by the government to the social partners, “obstructs the ability to discuss adjustments to the insurance agreement unemployment,” they add.
Through this drain, the government wants to finance public employment and training policies as well as France Travail. This new organization will in fact need additional resources to support the nearly two million RSA beneficiaries for whom it will be responsible, in addition to the unemployed.
But the drain on the revenues of Unédic, which is heavily in debt, will force it to borrow in the short term on the markets to honor its repayment deadlines, which will cost it 800 million over four years. Unions and employers consider that the framework within which the government has set the negotiation on the future of unemployment insurance “is based on an objectively questionable financial trajectory, which risks ultimately weakening the economic balance of the system”.
Only the CGT did not join this joint declaration. If she shares the substance of it, she has not endorsed it because she contests the savings requested by the employer party in the sectoral negotiation on compensation for intermittent workers in the entertainment sector – negotiations which will open in parallel with the discussions on the future of Unedic.