2023-08-28 14:52:00
By Thomas Engrand
Posted 3 hours ago, Updated 1 hour ago
The Prime Minister had to defend the government’s desire to puncture a share of Unedic’s surpluses in front of the bosses. EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
The executive will puncture the surpluses of this organization which manages unemployment insurance to finance its reform of France travail, to the chagrin of the social partners.
How many French people knew of the existence of the CVAE a few days ago? Probably not many people outside of business leaders who have to pay for it. However, the announcement of the postponement of its abolition, initially scheduled for 2024, to a later date, somewhat annoyed the employers who unsurprisingly took advantage of their “summer schools“, started this Monday, August 28, to return at length to the subject and challenge the executive. More surprisingly, the subject has almost passed into the background, despite its topicality, behind another less expected sticking point: the management of Unedic surpluses.
This organization, which oversees unemployment insurance and is managed by the social partners, is currently following an extremely positive budget path. After a record deficit during the Covid crisis, the structure should show a surplus of 4.3 billion euros in 2022 and forecast a surplus of 4.4 billion euros in 2023, 5.4 in 2024 and 8.7 in 2025. In search of savings, the State was quick to eye these profits to finance part of its reform of the operator supporting the unemployed, Pôle emploi, which is to become France travail en 2024.
By decree, 11% of its budget is provided by Unedic and the rate should rise to 12 or 13% according to the framework letter sent by the government to the social partners. Enough to reduce the revenue of “of 2 billion euros in 2023, then for the duration of the agreement : between -2.5 and 2.7 billion in 2024, between -3 and -3.2 billion in 2025, between -3.5 and -4 billion in 2026“, announces the document.
Investment or waste?
An effort that the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, again justified “meet the entrepreneurs of France 2023in front of business leaders, explaining that this surplus was due to the unemployment insurance reforms carried out by the government, more than thanks to the management of the social partners. And that, moreover, this cost should be seen as an investment that will make it possible to further improve the situation of the labor market and therefore lead to an increase in Unedic’s receipts and a reduction in expenditure.
Inevitably, the reading of employers is very different. Patrick Martin, the new president of Medef, did not hesitate to question the future effectiveness of the reform, which many fear is yet another step in the French administrative mille-feuille. “Consider that these surpluses result from job creation and wage increases (made) by our companies: devoting them to the tune of 11 to 12 billion euros of public policies would be abnormal“, was indignant the boss of bosses. And to claim:Part of these surpluses should be devoted to a reduction in our unemployment contributions rather than to additional funding for France Travail, an organization which would cost us more to process fewer files.“. In addition to possible reductions in unemployment contributions, the Medef would prefer that this money be used to repay the debt of Unédic which amounted to 60 billion at the end of 2022.
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