WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #352 - Trade Unionism, Unemployment Insurance: A Reform Against Employees With or Without Jobs (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The upcoming unemployment insurance reform is a new regression in rights

for employees without jobs. But above all, it is a way for the State to
put pressure on all salaries in order to offer cheap labor to employers.
---- On June 30, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal suspended the unemployment
insurance reform by extending the current compensation rules until
October 31, 2024. But Emmanuel Macron insists on it: this reform is a
central element of his economic policy.
The objective of this reform and the previous ones appears clearly when
the arguments put forward to justify them contradict each other in such
an indecent way. In 2022, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt
proposed, via the vague concept of countercyclicality, to reduce the
rights of the unemployed in the event of a drop in unemployment, but
committed, hand on heart, to revaluing them in the event of an increase
in unemployment. Two years later, the Minister of Labor Catherine
Vautrin explains to us that it is because unemployment is increasing
that it is necessary to... reduce the rights of the unemployed... Spot
the mistake!

A supply-side policy at the service of the bosses
Unemployment insurance reforms serve above all to make employees
precarious, whether or not they are unemployed, in order to provide
employers with cheap labor. It is the supply-side policy that consists
of "removing the barriers to hiring" - meaning destroying labor law and
social protections to put pressure on wages and impose any job on
employees under any conditions.

The Full Employment Act of December 18, 2023 was a decisive cannonball
for this supply-side policy. It openly links pension reform,
apprenticeships, vocational training, unemployment insurance, RSA and
the creation of France Travail. The objective: to put everyone to work
without conditions or social protection, and thus saturate the labor
market in so-called "stressed" sectors, i.e. sectors that lack
employees. Why are these sectors stressed? Because the working
conditions and pay are indecent: construction, cleaning, catering, etc.
The lack of employees in these sectors should allow for negotiations in
favor of employees. But by saturating these markets with apprentices,
the unemployed, the precarious and seniors: no more negotiations!

If the government's hypocritical and contradictory arguments are based
on unemployment figures, let's talk about it! The number of people
registered with France Travail, precarious and unemployed in all
categories, is still 5.7 million, or 20% of the working population. So
yes, there were 6.2 million in 2022... But each reform excludes a
significant number of unemployed people from unemployment insurance
rights by reducing the period of affiliation (the number of months you
have to work to benefit from unemployment) and the period of
compensation (the number of months during which you receive
compensation): 300,000 removals in 2019 and 2021, 200,000 in 2023, and
more than 300,000 for the next reform. Do the math...

UNEDIC coffers robbery
But this reform is innovative by operating a robbery of unemployment
insurance resources (managed "jointly" by the unions and employers via
Unedic). Let us recall that Unedic's debt is a masquerade that has been
cleverly orchestrated for years. Let's increase employer contributions
by a few points and the debt will disappear. In addition, 11% of
Unedic's resources were devoted to Pôle emploi/France Travail. The
government's new framework letter requires Unedic to increase its
contribution to 13%, with an additional contribution of 2 billion on the
2024 surplus and another two billion on those of 2026. A good way to
continue to disengage from the financing of this public institution
while drying up Unedic's resources.

Windfall effects on the backs of employees
But this reform also allows the State to pay itself through unemployment
insurance. Unemployment insurance is a social conquest of the workers'
movement and, like Social Security, an expression of the socialization
of the value produced by employees. This socialization was a decisive
victory against capitalism and the State. Based on wages, unemployment
insurance freed employees from the arbitrary nature of employers and the
labor market. But in 2017, employees' social security contributions were
replaced by taxes. So, since the State has replaced employees in
financing Unedic, Gabriel Attal officially announces that the next
reform of unemployment insurance will reduce State spending and the
deficit... Strike!

The next reform will require working 8 months out of 20 to benefit from
unemployment insurance. It was 4 months out of 24 before the 2019
reform, which had already extended it to 6 months. The duration of
compensation is reduced to 15 months. It was 24 months before the 2019
and 2023 reforms, which had already reduced it to 18 and 20 months
respectively.

The compensation proposed by the reform is appalling if we believe them
to be sincere, but completely logical when we accept this supply-side
policy subordinated only to the demands of employers. Concerning the
employment bonus for seniors, unemployment insurance will supplement
their income if they find a job that is less well paid than their
previous job. A good example of what is called a windfall effect. In the
same way that when the State socially and fiscally exempts employees
hired at the minimum wage, it motivates employers to hire mainly... at
the minimum wage. The senior employment bonus will mechanically lead to
hiring with lower salaries, with a nice gift given to the employer on
the backs of the employees, and contribute to putting pressure on
salaries! A real bonus, but for the bosses.

This reform attacks all employees and seeks to destroy unemployment
insurance. But the State and employers are shooting themselves in the
foot. Unemployment insurance also has an essential economic function by
allowing the level of qualification of unemployed employees to be
maintained, and to maintain their standard of living and therefore
consumption. The hatred of the State and employers towards the social
conquests of the workers' movement is therefore essentially unfavorable
to them by massively impoverishing society.

On the other hand, there are alternatives! To secure unemployment
insurance, let's return to financing Unedic through contributions based
on salaries, eliminate social exemptions, increase the employer's share
and integrate unemployment insurance as a fourth branch of Social
Security. And to reduce unemployment, let's reduce working hours!

Franz Müller (UCL Paris Nord-Est)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Assurance-chomage-Une-reforme-contre-les-salarie-es-avec-ou-sans-emploi
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