France hopes to get people back into work with 'new' jobseeker agency

The French government is due to present its "full employment" bill to the Council of Ministers this Wednesday in legislation that will create France Travail – the successor to Pôle Emploi, the national jobseeker service.

A woman walks next to a boards that reads "Looking for a job, who can help you?" in a branch of France's former national employment agency Pole Emploi in Montpellier, southern France (for illustrative purposes). AFP - PASCAL GUYOT

Trade unions are concerned, however, about what will happen to payments given to recipients of the existing job seekers allowance. 

In keeping with President Emmanuel Macron's campaign promise to significantly reduce unemployment, the creation of France Travail aims to better coordinate the main players within the French public employment service.

For the government, reforming and rebranding the existing Pôle Emploi is intended to provide a single point of contact for anyone looking for work or experiencing difficulty finding a job.

This includes recipients of the active solidarity jobseekers allowance (RSA), of which only 40 percent are registered with Pôle Emploi.

The revamped public operator – which includes local employment networks and local authorities – seeks better structural coordination with interconnected IT systems.

It is expected to be operational from 1 January 2024.

RSA : Élisabeth Borne confirme que le projet de loi France Travail prévoira des sanctions https://t.co/CWUh3bNgyt

— Ouest-France (@OuestFrance) May 13, 2023

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne last week said that at present the division of responsibilities was "complex". 

The state was responsible for supporting jobseekers, regional governments were in charge of training them, the French departements took care of integrating RSA recipients and then local authorities coordinated childcare and housing.

Borne said the change would not be an "institutional big bang" but a question of working better together.

Nevertheless, the French government is banking on this transformation to achieve full employment (an unemployment rate of around 5 percent) by 2027 – compared with just over 7 percent at present. Driving this is the idea that "nobody is unemployable".

'Contract of commitment'

Each person registered with France Travail is to sign a commitment contract when they enroll.

A new form of RSA support is being trialled in 18 departements, with recipients required to "work" 15 to 20 hours a week as part of what the government has called a mind-set of "rights and duties".

Although not formally enshrined in law, these hours – immersion courses, refresher classes, CV writing, etc – will be part of objectives "adapted to each individual" said Employment and Social Affairs Minister Olivier Dussopt.

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However, Dussopt stressed that these hours will be "neither free work nor compulsory voluntary work".

He also pointed out that the contract between the recipient and his or her adviser has existed since 1988, but that out of almost two million RSA recipients, "350,000 have no follow-up at all".

For the Minister, what's lacking is support: "We are not absolved of our duty of solidarity when we have paid out €607."

Yet the bill reforms the penalties for recipients who fail to meet their obligations. It will be possible to temporarily suspend jobseekers' payments before a decision is taken to withdraw it. 

|| COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE || Rapport #FranceTravail - La CFDT partage les ambitions mais sera vigilante dans la mise en œuvre. https://t.co/p0AyYLbY65 #emploi #RSA pic.twitter.com/u1pp9CJ40Q

— CFDT (@CFDT) April 26, 2023

Punishing jobseekers?

It is this aspect of the reform that is of concern to France's powerful trade unions, who have reiterated in a joint union meeting "their opposition to any attack on the principle of national solidarity through the reform of the RSA.

On Friday, Marylise Léon, the deputy head of France's largest union, the CFDT, warned in the leftwing l'Humanité newspaper that RSA was "a red line".

Meanwhile the more hardline CGT union has criticised the government for playing on the fact that unlike pensions, some people think that RSA recipients "should be punished".

As it stands, being struck off the allowance register is reserved for "very serious cases of fraud or other offences".

Among the 60 percent of RSA recipients who are not registered with Pôle Emploi were people with disabilities and people in extremely difficult social situations, the CGT said.

This meant it was absurd to require "15 to 20 hours of activity", the union added.