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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In a message sent to staff on Thursday evening, its management said the buildings in central Paris “will remain closed tomorrow, Friday May 3rd. We ask you to continue to work from home”.

A committee of pro-Palestinian students earlier on Thursday announced a “peaceful sit-in” at Sciences Po and said six students were starting a hunger strike “in solidarity with Palestinian victims” in war-torn Gaza.

Sciences Po is widely considered France’s top political science school and counts President Emmanuel Macron among its alumni.

Echoing tense demonstrations rocking many top US universities, students at Sciences Po have staged a series of protests, with some furious over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.

The Paris regional authority’s right-wing head Valerie Pécresse temporarily suspended funding to Sciences Po earlier this week over the protests, condemning what she called “a minority of radicalised people calling for anti-Semitic hatred”.

The war started with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7th attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel estimates that 129 captives seized by militants during their attack remain in Gaza. The military says 34 of them are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

A member of the student committee who identified himself only as Hicham said the hunger strikes would continue until the university’s board voted on holding an investigation into its partnerships with Israeli universities.

Sciences Po’s acting administrator Jean Basseres said he had refused that call during a debate with students, held at the university in a bid to calm days of protests.

Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau earlier on Thursday called on university heads to “keep order”, including by calling in the police if needed.