French labour minister François Rebsamen on Tuesday said he wanted the country’s unemployment services to crack down on benefit claimants “abusing the system”, saying that there were 350,000 jobs begging to be filled, reports FRANCE 24.
France is suffering from record unemployment, with 3.4 million benefit claimants in the top category (those with no job and looking for full-time work).
When other categories are included, where workers do occasional work and are looking for full-time employment, that figure rises to 5.4 million.
This rising number – it was 2.9 million last year in the first category – is a bête noire for President François Hollande’s embattled and unpopular Socialist government, which is struggling to kickstart France’s stagnant economy under the burden of massive national debt.
“Having 350,000 unfilled positions in a country that has 3.4 million unemployed is not an acceptable situation,” Rebsamen told i>Télé TV on Tuesday, adding that too many benefits claimants were getting government handouts without actively seeking employment, as they are obliged to do.
“We need to have better controls,” he added while insisting he was “not talking about the majority of jobseekers”.
When asked what measures he would put in place, he replied: “Jobseekers must be required to prove they are looking for work, and this must be checked. And if they are not doing enough, they will lose their benefits.”
“There has to be a point where people are sanctioned if they are abusing the system,” he added. “As a country that is in economic difficulty, we have to put our foot down.”
Rebsamen's comments were met with immediate criticism from trade unions who are keen to protect France’s employment safety net, under which workers pay high levels of unemployment insurance which comes off their monthly pay packet.
“This is stigmatisation of the unemployed,” said Laurent Berger, head of the powerful CFDT union (which represents workers in a broad range of industries). “My first reaction when I heard him this morning was to think of all the people I know who are looking for work, people who need solutions.”
Rebsamen’s crackdown on jobseekers echoes much-criticised moves by Britain’s Conservative government to reform the benefit system amid a continuing austerity drive to reduce government spending and rein in debt.
Disagreements in France over how to fix the country’s broken economy boiled over in August when former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg slammed austerity as a failed policy.
His outburst led to a cabinet reshuffle in which Montebourg was booted out of the government.
The new government, led by tough-talking former interior minister Manuel Valls who was made prime minister in March 2014, has been criticised for turning its back on its Socialist principles in aggressively pushing to reduce government debt at the expense of investing in growth through spending.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.