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A reform of France's UNEDIC unemployment insurance scheme agreed by employers' organisations and three trade union confederations in December 2002 will substantially restrict unemployment benefit entitlements when new eligibility rules come into force on 1 January 2004. In mid-2003, UNEDIC issued figures indicating that cuts in entitlement will affect between 610,000 and 860,000 people currently in receipt of benefit. These figures have fuelled new criticism from the union confederations (CGT and CGT-FO), which did not sign the reform agreement.
In December 2002, three trade union confederations - the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff-French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff (Confédération française de l'encadrement - Confédération générale des cadres, CFE-CGC) and French Christian Workers’ Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) - reached an agreement with employers' organisations, designed to cut the deficit of the jointly-run unemployment insurance scheme (FR0301106F). The deficit of the National Union for Employment in Trade and Industry (Union nationale pour l'emploi dans l'industrie et le commerce, UNEDIC) scheme stood at EUR 3.7 billion in 2002 .
The core of the cost-cutting plan was a reduction in the period of receipt of unemployment benefit . These new rules came into force on 1 January 2003 for new jobseekers registering with UNEDIC after this date. In the case of those who had registered with the unemployment insurance scheme prior to 1 January 2003, the new benefit rules will come into effect on 1 January 2004. However, until summer 2003, unemployed people had not been officially notified of the cut in their benefit period which will begin on 1 January 2004. Consequently, the local-level UNEDIC bodies - Associations for Employment in Industry and Commerce (Associations pour l'emploi dans l'industrie et le commerce, ASSEDIC s) - are currently contacting all benefit recipients affected by the switch to the new benefit rules. An initial estimate of the number of unemployed people affected by the cutback in entitlement periods has also been drawn up. According to UNEDIC figures, between 610,000 and 860,000 benefit recipients will have their entitlements cut from 1 January 2004.
The letters sent out to benefit recipients by some ASSEDIC spell out the reduced entitlement in detail, reminding unemployed people that the December 2002 reform amended benefit periods, and that as a result :
- if the entitlement period was initially 15 months, it will be reduced to seven months as of 1 July 2004;
- if the entitlement period was set at 21 months, it will also be reduced to seven months;
- if the entitlement period was set at 30 months, it will be reduced to 23 months; and
- as of 1 January 2004, the remaining number of days of benefit to which unemployed people will be entitled will be equal to the new entitlement periods set out above, minus the number of days they have already been paid. This may mean that some unemployed people have no entitlement left.
The two trade union confederations that did not sign the December 2002 agreement – judging it to be a step backwards – were quick to comment on the figures, whose scale came as a surprise. The impact of the reform is far-reaching since approximately half of UNEDIC benefit recipients will be affected by the new rules taking effect on 1 January 2004, not to mention those who have already experienced cuts (new recipients and those becoming unemployed at the end of temporary contracts). In the opinion of the General Confederation of Labour-Force Ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail-Force Ouvrière, CGT-FO), the UNEDIC figures confirm that 'most of the sacrifices made with a view to putting UNEDIC back on a sound financial footing are based on penalising unemployed people'. The General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT), sees things in much the same way. It considers that UNEDIC 'is not doing its job, that is to say covering the risk of job loss, and must once again become a tool for social progress'. Associations representing unemployed people, which always make their presence felt in matters concerning unemployment insurance, also reacted to the UNEDIC figures by reiterating the criticism that they had expressed six months earlier when the agreement was reached.