French government slashes unemployment benefits

The French government said Monday that jobseekers would see the amount of time they can claim benefits cut by 25 percent from next year as part of a contested reform designed to help fill vacant positions.

Published: 21 November 2022 15:45 CET

French government slashes unemployment benefits

France's Labour Minister gestures during a press conference following a meeting to unveil new unemployment insurance reform. (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP)

Under the current rules, anyone under the age of 53 can claim a maximum two years of compensation after losing their job, while the over-55s are eligible for three years.

By reducing the time by a quarter from February 2023, Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt said Monday he hoped that 100,000 150,000 people would return to the labour market earlier than expected next year.

“We’re keeping one of the most generous systems in Europe,” he added in a comment designed to reassure workers worried about their rights being eroded.

The new regime was made possible by a law passed by parliament last week that gave the government powers to change the unemployment system by decree, depending on the state of the labour market.

The idea proposed by President Emmanuel Macron is that benefits would be available for longer during economic downturns and restricted during times of labour shortages.

Despite high inflation and the impact of the war in Ukraine, France’s unemployment rate has fallen steadily to 7.3 percent amid complaints from many employers that they are unable to find people willing to fill vacancies.

The head of the Medef business association, Hubert Mongon, hailed the change as “going in the right direction” in encouraging people back to work.

All of France’s trade unions have opposed the changes, which are part of centrist President Emmanuel Macron’s pro-business agenda designed to reduce the country’s chronic high unemployment and high levels of public spending.

Macron made reaching full employment — which would mean bringing the unemployment rate down to around 5.0 percent — one of the pledges of his successful bid for a second term in presidential elections in May.

The unemployment system changes drew support from the rightwing Republicans opposition party which helped pass the legislation last week, a rare moment of compromise in the divided and hung National Assembly.

Macron has been under pressure to give impetus to his second term, which was severely undermined when his allies failed to win a majority in parliamentary elections in June that saw major gains for the far-right and hard-left.

The previously supportive centre-right Le Point magazine questioned this week if Macron was a “Zombie President” in a front page article.

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France has in recent weeks been shaken by a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party has accused Attal of not doing enough on security as the anti-immigration party soars ahead of the government coalition in polls for the June 9th election.

Speaking in Viry-Chatillon, the town where Shemseddine was killed, Attal condemned the “addiction of some of our adolescents to violence”, calling for “a real surge of authority… to curb violence”.

“There are twice as many adolescents involved in assault cases, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population,” he said.

Measures will include expanding compulsory school attendance to all the days of the week from 8am to 6pm for children of collège age (11 to 15).

“In the day the place to be is at school, to work and to learn,” said Attal, who was also marking 100 days in office since being appointed in January by President Emmanuel Macron to turn round the government’s fortunes.

Parents needed to take more responsibility, said Attal, warning that particularly disruptive children would have sanctions marked on their final grades.

OPINION: No, France is not suffering an unprecedented wave of violence

Promoting an old-fashioned back-to-basics approach to school authority, he said “You break something – you repair it. You make a mess – you clear it up. And if you disobey – we teach you respect.”

Attal also floated the possibility of children in exceptional cases being denied the right to special treatment on account of their minority in legal cases.

Thus 16-year-olds could be forced to immediately appear in court after violations “like adults”, he said. In France, the age of majority is 18, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Macron and Attal face an uphill struggle to reverse the tide ahead of the European elections. Current polls point to the risk of a major debacle that would overshadow the rest of the president’s second mandate up to 2027.

A poll this week by Ifop-Fiducial showed the RN on 32.5 percent with the government coalition way behind on 18 percent.