No role for unemployed associations in management of unemployment insurance

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Following numerous debates, France's National Assembly made the decision in April 1998 to allow unemployed associations to take part in new local liaison committees attached to the agencies for training and placement of unemployed people. However, the Assembly did not approve an amendment which provided for representation of unemployed people within the UNEDIC unemployment insurance fund.

One of the demands made by many associations of unemployed people during their high-profile action during December 1997 and January 1998 (FR9801189F) was for them to "speak in the name of the jobless" within the agencies responsible for managing their situation. The National Union for Employment in Industry and Commerce, (Union nationale interprofessionnelle pour l'emploi dans l'industrie et le commerce, UNEDIC), which oversees payment of unemployment insurance, is currently administered on a joint basis by trade union confederations and national employers' associations. The "rebellion by the jobless" seemed to many commentators to be a challenge to the unions, accused by many of the associations involved of defending the interests of workers at the expense of unemployed people.

This issue came to the fore again at the end of April 1998, during a parliamentary debate on the proposed law tackling social exclusion (FR9803100F). The social affairs committee, on the initiative of Jean Le Garrec of the Socialist Party, adopted an amendment proposing that unemployed people be both represented on the UNEDIC board of directors and given a role in the management of the ASSEDIC emergency assistance funds. ASSEDICs (Associations for Employment in Industry and Commerce, Associations pour l'emploi dans l'industrie et le commerce) are decentralised organisations within UNEDIC.

The proposal met with strong hostility from all trade unions except the CGT, which stressed that it was "fully committed to the unemployed in their struggle for jobs" and "could do nothing but support the legislature's move". Nicole Notat, general secretary of the CFDT and chair of UNEDIC, was flatly against the proposal, claiming that "the suspicion that it perpetuates as to the legitimacy of unions to represent the interests of unemployed people in this area is prejudicial to both the efficient running of the UNEDIC and to the unemployed themselves." The CFE-CGC, the CFTC and the CGT-FO share the same opinion. In view of this situation, the Assembly came up with a new formula in the text it approved. Unemployed associations and unions will be part of liaison committees attached to the local operations of the National Employment Agency, (Agence nationale pour l'emploi, ANPE) which is responsible for the placement of job-seekers, and the Adult Training Agency ( Agence pour la formation des adultes, AFPA). Unemployed associations will not, however, be represented in UNEDIC.

During the parliamentary debate, the Minister for Employment and Solidarity, Martine Aubry, stressed that she did not wish to see associations of unemployed people play a role in the management of UNEDIC, because the joint management principle was essential in France. She added, however, that in her opinion it was "desirable for the unions and unemployed associations to be able, at the local ASSEDIC level, to say what is wrong and to support unemployed people".