What’s the Canadian Model the Executive wants to inspire for Unemployment Insurance?

UNEMPLOYMENT – Extending the reform by setting an objective: to direct all rules, especially those of compensation, to the return to work. This was confirmed by Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt in an interview Parisian published this Tuesday, July 26th, the first axes and thoughts for the new unemployment insurance reform announced by Emmanuel Macron in his interview on July 14th.

This is subject to consultation with the social partners ‘from the beginning of the school year’ after a first round of discussion on the governance of the programme. The text must also be the first thing on Parliament’s menu when it returns from the summer recess from early October.

And before these discussions, the government already seems to be taking inspiration abroad. “Our remuneration rules must take into account the state of the labor market, as Canada does, for example,” the former budget minister, who replaces Elisabeth Borne rue de Grenelle, tells the daily. “When things are going well, we tighten the rules and when things are going badly, we relax them,” he adds, recalling that the first part of the reform, which tightened the conditions for compensation, expires on November 1, 2022 and that it needs to be extended.

On the way to an evolutionary compensation period?

New rules taking into account economic conditions and labor market dynamics, what does it mean? “This evaluation is carried out either on the basis of criteria such as e.g. B. a number of consecutive quarters of improvement in employment, or by a committee giving us an opinion. The conditions have not been set,” slips Olivier Dussop, while his ministry announced this Wednesday, July 27, a further decrease in the number of unemployed registered at Pôle emploi between April and June (3,165,900 in category A , a decrease of 15.1% over one year and 5,436,100 for A, B and C, ie -8.9% over one year).

“The latest reform has changed the daily reference wage and the deadline for reloading entitlements. Tracks can be opened about the duration of the compensation and its declining nature,” adds the minister. In Canada there is no degression in the amount of compensation linked to the unemployment rate. On the other hand, the number of hours of work required to exercise rights and the duration of compensation vary depending on the state of the labor market at the provincial level.

The higher the unemployment rate, the more the number of hours of work required to open the right decreases. In a region with an unemployment rate below 6%, you must have worked 700 hours to be eligible for unemployment benefits, compared to 525 hours if that rate is between 10.1% and 11%.

The higher the unemployment rate, the longer the compensation period. “Thus, a person who has worked 700 hours is entitled to 14 weeks’ compensation if he lives in a region with an unemployment rate of less than 6%, while he is entitled to 36 weeks’ compensation in a region with an unemployment rate above 16% “, explains the Unédic study.

“In Canada, 40% of job seekers stay unemployed for less than a month and only 7% stay there for more than a year. In France it’s the other way around!” he argues Parisian Éric Chevée, vice-president of the Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (CPME), an employers’ organization that defends and promotes this idea to deal with the “hiring tensions” reported by employers in many sectors.

“The job market doesn’t work like that”

A doctrine not shared by all economists and unions. Many of them warn against a model that cannot necessarily be transposed to the specificities of economic activity and the labor market in France, let alone the level of education of our jobseekers. “That’s not how the labor market works,” said CFDT number two, Marylise Léon, to our colleagues at the end of last week World.

“In the vast majority of cases, companies’ labor problems are more related to the lack of skills, working conditions and wages, and also to the fact that many employers unfortunately do not know how to recruit,” she adds. For its part, the CGT fears a reform that will mean increasing “impoverishment” of the unemployed and the introduction of “restricted rights”.

2 billion euros in savings on the backs of the unemployed (unemployment insurance reform).

5 billion is given back to the richest every year (ISF + Flat Tax).

It is necessary to put@olivierdussoptand this jobless government! https://t.co/eISHcz7JeI

– Mathilde Panot (@MathildePanot) July 27, 2022

Unions also point out that the government has yet to assess the impact of the measures coming into force from 2021 before “going further” on unemployment insurance reform. In addition, at the end of 2021, 30% of people registered with Pôle emploi were not compensated. Shortening the entitlement period – with a falling unemployment rate – would therefore no longer encourage them to accept job offers.

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