Gathered on May 27 at the headquarters of UNEDI in Paris, social interlocutors reached an agreement on an amendment to the unemployment insurance agreement concerning the bonus-malus. In addition to adjustments to the current system, this text acts the opening of a negotiation on short contracts before the end of the year. The text is now subject to the signing of trade union and employer organizations.
At the end of a third negotiation session, the joint working group responsible for making adjustments to the bonus-malus system, as part of an amendment to the 2024 unemployment insurance agreement, reached an agreement on May 27. This system for modulating the unemployment rate of employers depending on the number of work contract breaks was set up in 2019. But it turns out to be ineffective to combat the abuse of short contracts.
« Overall, what I remember is that we have preserved most of a device that does not work, which concerns very few companies, and above all, which does not prevent companies from hiring on a short contract. But we are attached to paritarism, and as we have regained control over unemployment insurance, it would have been annoying not to succeed in obtaining an agreement on a bonus-malus working group which integrated the agreement that we signed »summed up Michel Beaugas, Confederate FO secretary in charge of employment, after the meeting.
In detail, the adjustments are made on the fringes. The perimeter of contract ends taken into account to calculate the contribution rates is reduced, but not as much as the employers wanted it in its amendment project presented on April 16. Thus, in the future, only contracts of less than three months will be concerned. And will be excluded seasonal contracts, layoffs for serious or heavy fault, as well as those for incapacity of non -professional origin. This last exclusion constitutes a “ divergence For the FO delegation. « Very often, non –professional incapacity have a professional origin that has not been established »underlined Michel Beaugas. But the FO negotiator welcomed that certain causes of ruptures that the employers were originally wishing to rule out were maintained, in particular conventional ruptures.
6 sectors concerned instead of 7
Currently, the bonus-malus applies to companies with 11 or more employees, under seven activity sectors. In the future, due to the revision of the perimeter, the woodworking sector, paper and printing industries will be out of the scope.
These measures should only be transient. Because beyond these technical adjustments, the text acts the opening, before December 31, 2025, of a specific joint negotiation on the use of short contracts and the security of the professional paths of employees in short contracts. Preparatory work will start next fall. « The challenges linked to the use of these contracts, especially when recurring, call a broader approach than that permitted by the sole framework of the bonus-malus system »specifies the text of the agreement. The objective of negotiation will therefore be « to identify levers of action allowing to better regulate, in a balanced manner and adapted to the realities of the sectors, the use of short contracts ».
The text is now subject to the signing of trade union and employer organizations. If it is validated, the revision of the perimeter of the end of the employment contract taken into account will apply from 1is mars 2026.
