Five questions about the tightening of the conditions of the conventional ruptures envisaged by the government

In search of savings for the 2026 budget, François Bayrou and his Minister of Labor want to reduce the cost of this device which allows the employee to receive unemployment allocation, accused of replacing resignations or layoffs.

It is a popular device, but in the viewfinder. The Government plans to tighten the conditions of the contractual termination, which allows an employer and an employee to break by mutual agreement an indefinite contract, and opens up rights to unemployment allocation. While Prime Minister François Bayrou proposed new negotiations to reform unemployment insurance, as part of the savings for the 2026 budget presented on July 15, the Minister responsible for Labor cited among the main subjects the fight against “abuse” linked to the contractual rupture. Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet confirmed his intention in an interview At IndicateThursday, July 24, three days after inviting the unions to his ministry. Franceinfo explains the rules today in force, and how and why the government wants to modify them.

1 What are the current rules of conventional rupture?

Introduced in 2008,, This system aimed to give greater flexibility to the labor market and offer an alternative to dismissal and resignation, allowing an amicable break. For the employer, this amicable rupture had to reduce the risk of a procedure to the industrial tribunal, compared to a dismissal. For the employee, this system had the advantage of giving the right to unemployment insurance, which is not the case after a resignation.

To be entitled to it, you must be employee on a permanent contract, explain the administration website. The procedure is codified: it is necessary to carry out at least a prior interview, then write and sign an agreement which defines the conditions for the termination of the contract, in particular the date and the amount of the contractual termination indemnity, which “cannot be less than the legal dismissal allowance”,, specifies the administration. The two parties benefit from a right of withdrawal within the following fifteen days, then the agreement must be approved by the State. “The contractual termination cannot be imposed by one or the other of the parties”insists the administration site. The use of industrial tribunal is possible if pressures have been exerted by the employer.

2 What could change in the event of a reform?

By once again reforming unemployment insurance, the government wishes to save public finances “Between 2 and 2.5 billion euros (per year) For the period 2026-2029, and 3 to 4 billion euros in saving by 2030 “, According to the encryption of the Ministry of Labor. On July 15, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet had explained that she wanted to modify the duration of compensation and the conditions of eligibility of all job seekers, but also more specifically leaning on the “Conditions of compensation” conventional ruptures.

One of the assumptions consists in lengthening the waiting period, that is to say the time between the conventional rupture and the start of compensation by unemployment insurance. This depends in particular on the amount of termination allowances affected by the employee within the framework of the agreement with his employer, and may last from 7 days to 5 months, explains France Work. The lengthening could make the device less attractive and less expensive. “The deficiency is one track among others”explained Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet to Indicate THURSDAY.

3 How does the government justify its project?

Speaking after the budgetary announcements of François Bayrou, on July 15, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet said that it existed “Objectively many abuses” linked to conventional ruptures, “of Side employee as on the business side “suggesting that she could serve as a cover for resignations or layoffs.

To affirm this, the government is based on A DARES studythe Ministry of Labor Statistics Agency, carried out in 2018. It estimated that “Conventional ruptures would have replaced above all for CDI resignations (around 75% between 2012 and 2017) and, to a lesser extent, for economic layoffs (between 10 and 20%)”. Only the rest of the departures (5 to 15%) “may not have taken place without the introduction of the system”.

Another studyput online in 2019 by economists Cyprien Batut and Eric Maurin, believes that “The adoption of conventional ruptures in an establishment coincides with an overall increase in CDI breaks”This would mean that they are at least in part in part to layoffs and resignations, rather than replacing them.

In his interview with IndicateThursday, the Minister of Labor also believes that unemployment allocation after a contractual termination is used as “Comfort income” by certain employees, in particular “very qualified career workers”Who “So do not immediately start their job search”. It offers the social partners to “Recalibrate the system” so that he returns to “His original spirit” be “A safety net”.

4 How much does the system cost every year?

In 2024, nearly 515,000 individual conventional ruptures were signed, according to statistics from the Ministry of Labor, against 315,000 in 2015, testifying to an increase in the use of this system, even if the figures have been stagnating since 2022. This cause of permanent contract remains less important than resignations (1.85 million in 2024) and licensees (583,000), according to Author.

In 2022, France work paid 9 billion euros in allowances to employees compensated after a contractual termination, or 28% of the total of allowances paid, according to The UnédicAnd this while they represent 25% of beneficiaries. A discrepancy which is explained by the fact that it concerns only former employees on permanent contracts, whose remuneration is greater than the average, giving the right to compensation as greater.

5 What are the reactions of unions and employers’ organizations?

If the Minister of Labor invited the main unions on Monday for a first exchange on the unemployment insurance reform, only the CFDT and the CFTC have applied. “It is a total carnage for job seekers”, said the president of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, at the exit, about the global project of the government. “It’s absolutely unacceptable”I was rebellious with Franceinfo Denis Gravouil, confederate secretary in charge of the file at the CGT. Both also criticized, with of WorldThe idea of hardening the rules of conventional ruptures. Denis Gravouil thus accuses the government of claiming “that employees abuse”while “Conventional ruptures are often disguised layoffs”he believes.

More open to developments, companies representatives, however, draw up a nuanced observation. Cited by the daily, Jean-Eudes Tesson, president of Unédic and from the doctors, recalls that conventional ruptures have “Brought a lot” In “soothing” certain situations, but shares the idea that they have replaced, “In many cases, resignations, which leads to additional costs” For employers and unemployment insurance. “Average and intermediate companies are attached to the conventional rupture” warns Eric Chevée, Vice-President of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME), always in The worldwhile adding that the appreciation “is undoubtedly different” in very small businesses, which “Find that some employees shoot on the rope”.