Full Employment Law: January 2025 Changes

• The press release concerns the evolutions of the law for full employment coming into effect in January 2025

Key Objectives of the Full Employment Law

• The law for full employment, enacted on December 18, 2023, aims to provide more individualized support to job seekers, better tailored to their level of autonomy and needs
• It seeks to improve their professional integration by offering the right solution at the right time through better cooperation among all employment and integration actors within the Employment Network
• This ambition will be achieved through concrete elements effective from January

Key Changes Effective in January

• Automatic registration with France Travail for all job seekers, including those facing social and professional integration difficulties
• Accelerated orientation based on unified criteria towards a referring organization of the Employment Network (France Travail, Missions Locales, Cap emploi, departmental councils, and delegated organizations of departmental councils)
• Redesign of the support process around a socio-professional diagnosis adapted to the profile and needs of individuals, based on a common framework for all support organizations
• Implementation of a commitment contract co-created between the supported individual and their referring advisor

Automatic Registration Details

• Approximately 1.2 million people will be automatically registered with France Travail in January
• This includes current recipients of RSA (Revenu de Solidarité Active), their spouses, cohabitants, or PACS partners (1 million people), and young individuals followed by local missions and in the Young Employment Contract (CEJ) or Contractualized Pathway to Employment (PACEA) (nearly 200,000 young people)
• These individuals were not previously registered on the list of job seekers
• No action is required from the individuals concerned
• These 1.2 million people will have access to certain France Travail services from January, including workshops, services, training, digital services on their personal space, meetings with recruiters, etc
• The registration will not impact the payment of RSA or ACEJ; individuals must continue their usual procedures to receive them (e.g., declaring resources every three months to their CAF for RSA recipients)
• For individuals already followed by an organization, their support will continue with the same referring organization until 2027, when their commitment contract will be renewed
• For individuals not currently supported, the most suitable organization (France Travail, departmental council, etc.) will contact them to assess their situation and define their support methods within an engagement contract

Dedicated Green Number

• France Travail has set up a dedicated green number to answer questions from people concerned by the new automatic registration - 0 805 41 02 62
• A FAQ is also accessible online

Streamlined Registration for RSA

• The process will also be implemented for people applying for RSA, their spouse, cohabitant or PACS partner
• Young people seeking support from a local mission for their job search will also be automatically registered with France Travail
• These individuals won't have any procedures to undertake because they will benefit from faster orientation and renovated support pathway

Streamlined Referral

• The objective is allowing job seekers - regardless of the service they use - to be referred as quickly as possible to the most relevant organization or professional
• Currently, 18% of RSA recipients aren't referred
• Of those that are, there's an average 3-month gap between the RSA application date and the orientation to a service and the contact with a professional can take another two months
• From January, orientation for all job seekers will be systematic in most cases, from their registration
• Standardised criteria will also to be used by services for the most appropriate pathways for job seekers
• Departments maintain authority in relation to RSA beneficiaries, they will also have a France Travail criteria to help guide their decisions

Focus on Individual Circumstances

• The career support journey starts the moment a job seeker has an appraisal with an employment advisor
• Employment services will have access to shared framework from January
• The framework will provide employment advisors with an overview of a job seeker's personal, family and professional circumstances
• In 2024 the framework was trialled, widespread implementation will occur in 2025

Commitment Contract

• The contract is developed during an appraisal
• It will detail a seeker's and service's obligations
• The service's obligations will explain who's working with the seeker, how they'll support them, and any training, childcare or housing support that's available
• It also covers the frequency of service contact

Sanctions

• Any failure to adhere to the contract will result in sanctions, the detail of any such an action to be formalised within the first half of 2025
• Until then current sanctions apply
• Departments retain responsibility for any action to be taken against RSA seekers

Hours

• The contract will set out levels of support and also the amount of work that a job seeker will have to undertake themselves
• Services will aim for 15 hours of activity per week for jobseekers
• The standard weekly requirement may not need to be met by people with health issues or disability or those who are the single parent of a child under 12 without childcare solutions
• The length of time can be adapted for people that work part time or provide care
• The amount of time can be adapted if existing work commitments exist that affect availability

Permitted Activity Examples

• Training to define and improve skills
• Focus on the exercising of rights, the availability of health or housing or even childcare
• Active jobseeking
• Any other task to ensure route to employment

Other Points

• The 15 hours work commitment is not a prerequisite for financial support or some jobseekers, more of a guiding principle
• For claimants, it will amount to greater service in order to ensure the claimant receives the best support

About France Travail

• On the 1st of January 2024 France Travail replaced Pôle emploi
• It has nearly 900 branches run by circa approximately 55000 staff
• They work with relevant employment, support and training organisations