Social law: Anatomy of the few in progress or future reforms

The last delivery of Social law is a remarkable interest in all those who wish to follow the challenges and implications of reforms and reform projects of the current government in the social field. The journal thus proposes, among other contributions, three enlightening articles, one on the law of August 21, 2007 relating to the continuity of the public service in regular land transport of travelers, the other on the implementation of the experimentation of active solidarity income by the High Commissioner for Active Solidarity Martin Hirsch, and the third finally on the allocation project to the first child advanced by Nicolas Sarkozy during the recent campaign Presidential.

The first article (“ About a modest law supposed to ensure “the continuity of public services in regular land transport of travelers” ) Is signed by Jean-Emmanuel Ray who underlines the “ modesty »Of a law supposed to ensure the continuity of the public service in transport in the event of social conflicts. This text ultimately does not guarantee any continuity of the public service. The author insists first of all on the advisability of the intervention of a framework law, made necessary by a trivialization of the notice deposits also too short to carry out a real negotiation. The cooling process “ Italian “Planned by law, inspired on this point of the Mandelkern report of 2004, provides for a first agreement aimed at the prevention of conflicts upstream of the notice (it is to encourage social dialogue to fix the provisions relating to the organization of such a negotiation) and a second agreement intended to ensure predictability-and not continuity, notes Jean-Emamnual Ray-of the service. On the other hand, while the provision relating to the organization of a secret balloon consultation scheduled beyond eight days of conflict has fueled many criticisms and raises a unfair hindrance to the right to strike, Jean-Emmanuel Ray highlights the rarity of this type of long conflict today and the ultimately neutral consequences of such a vote. Rather than questioning of the right to strike, it is rather an additional negotiation instrument that allows the possibility of such a referendum: its simple request will reveal the balance of power. According to him, the organization of this consultation may constitute an opportunity for the employer to delegitimize the current movement or to a leader of the movement to find an honorable exit door. Here is the implementation of individual/collective interweaving in the law of labor conflicts, through a real right of opposition from the employees concerned – because it is not necessarily all the staff or the only strikers who are led to pronounce – to a movement. The practice of secret voting will have concretely a disincitation effect on the duration of minority strikes: for fear of being massively disowned, the union will want to end the movement before the fateful cap of the eight days. Even if the outcome of the election does not take any legal consequence on the prosecution or not of the conflict, it is difficult to imagine a union disowned by the ballot boxes decide to continue the movement. Finally, the author, stressing that the law supports a real evolution of mentalities (both agents and users – who have become “ customers ), Nevertheless displays his skepticism on the real effectiveness of such a law. What will happen to the obligation to negotiate upstream of the notice in the event of unlimited or renewable notice ? How to take into account the extreme fragility of the process ? And what he calls “ the creative exercise of the right of withdrawal »Allowing to evade these new rules ?

The second article (“ Active solidarity income: ambiguities ), Signed by Jean Gadrey, attacks the ambiguities of active solidarity income (RSA). It is not as a lawyer-he immediately specifies it-, but as a socio-economic that he proposes to assess the challenges and ambiguities of the device with regard to his displayed objectives. He mainly highlights three fundamental aspects. The implementation of RSA And his experimentation is part of the general context of an approach to poverty and unemployment through the phenomena of “ inactivity hatches Which leads to a theory of rational choice in favor of voluntary unemployment. Even if the author of the project surely does not adhere to this vision of chosen unemployment, the ambient philosophy of delivery to work as the only remedy for poverty is likely to take precedence over the objective of fighting poverty and to oppose two types of poor by receiving only small part of the 7 million people concerned. What will we do for most of this audience ? And is it not a safe bet that it will be quickly unthinkable to note the social minima, except to reduce the effectiveness of the device promoted by Martin Hirsch for the minority he touches ?

Jean Gadrey also insists on the differences between the original ambitions of the RSA Presented in the 2005 and objectives of the 2007 text. The central ambiguity of the system lies in the desire to combat poverty in general by focusing on access to any job by monetary incentives. The 2005 report, which insisted on access to a decent income via a multidimensional approach to poverty, quickly gave way to the sole objective of access to employment. More serious, by establishing only a guaranteed income higher than current resources, the 2007 system abandons the reference to wage poverty. Indeed in 2005, the Hirsch report was focused on the idea of ​​an allowance taking into account the concept of poor employee. A considerable issue was covered by this notion of wage poverty. But also a complex issue: indeed, incitement to resumption of employment is aimed at individuals while the definition of poverty concerns households. Jean Gadrey notes that an employee can earn much more than the Minimum wage full -time and be part of the category of poor employees according to the composition of his family. Conversely, earning a very low salary is not a sufficient condition to be a “ poor employee ». According to the definition given by INSEE-which the author takes up-a poor employee is an employee who worked at least a month in the year and who lives in a poor household, that is to say whose standard of living is below the poverty line. It is generally considered that the poverty line is 60% of median income. On this point also the current system differs radically from the 2005 design: originally, RSA took the form of an allowance “ family “, Certainly more expensive, but taking all household income and the composition of the family. Once the benchmark is the reference to abandoned wage poverty, the orientation is no longer the same: only one “ Increased resources Is guaranteed, but without insurance of a standard of living at least equal to the wage poverty line. From this revision to the decrease in the ambition of the project and the disappearance of any precise reference to wage poverty, inevitably follows a considerable reduction in financial means: cause or consequence, the fact remains that the budget for the generalization of RSA Seeing itself divided by 4 (only two billion euros of the eight billion announced in 2005 remain significantly).

Finally, the author underlines that such a risk device may ultimately promote the development of “ odd jobs Who are impoverishment jobs. Such a risk had been mentioned in the 2005 report: he thus provided-modestly-to call for collective negotiations, in particular of branch, to provide for the terms of penalization of part-time when it is not part of a framed reintegration process. The fixing of objectives for reducing this type of job as well as a calendar was envisaged in the initial project, via negotiation. Nothing like in the 2007 version. If we defend themselves today by arguing the uselessness of such a device at the experimental stage, it seems unlikely that measures of this nature are ultimately implemented while the time seems to be more to the development of short part -time to improve the only figures of employment.

In the end, many of the criticisms that have been addressed to the employment bonus (PPE) can be applied to RSA 2007: if it is very targeted unlike the PPEon the other hand it does not provide for measures to counter the development of impoverishment employment ; He also carries, because of his method of allocation “ familyized », The risk of an incentive to reduce female activity.

The third article (“ From allowance to the first child to child allowance: Figure of family allowances »), Signed by Julien Damon, concerns family policy and returns in particular to the project for the allocation to the first child, launched by candidate Sarkozy during the presidential campaign. The article is organized in three stages: it comes back first of all on the history of family allowances, which are originally part of a clearly natalist policy ; He then suggests the need for a reform to support such an extension of family allowances to the first child ; Finally, he returns to the idea of ​​a deep mutation operated by this reform which introduces a kind of dismay of the allowances where the recipient becomes the child. According to him, the fact that the greatest number of poor people are in large families and that families to one child already benefit from the mechanisms of social minima and housing services justifies the usefulness of a larger reform, that of the forfeiting of family allowances for each child. Compensation would then be expected for large poor poor families, who would appear losers from such a reform.