The duration has already been reduced, the compensation ceiling reduced... But the government is still looking for 2 billion euros: unions and employers open negotiations on sick leave

The government does not seem to have enough. This Thursday, October 29, in the morning, unions and employers meet by videoconference to initiate a "flash" negotiation on compensation for sick leave - which is still the target of substantial savings to redress the Social Security accounts. They are responsible for finding a billion euros in savings by acting on the daily allowances paid by Health Insurance, knowing that Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is aiming for a total of 2 billion euros by also bringing the taxation of sick leave for certain patients closer to that applied to work income.

In ten years, Social Security expenditure on sick leave has increased significantly, from 7.7 billion euros in daily allowances paid in 2016 to 12.1 billion euros in 2025. By adding work accidents and occupational illnesses, the bill is even close to 18 billion euros. If the framework letter sent by the head of government to the social partners integrates prevention into the levers to be activated, unions and employers' organizations are also, and above all, invited to negotiate on the compensation parameters.

Several tightening of screws In the current context, marked by social mobilizations, "the negotiation promises to be very complicated", anticipates Léonard Guillemot, who will represent the CFTC during the debates, which will be held in the Medef premises. “There is an atypical increase in long and short stoppages, but also a whole bunch of measures that have been taken, of which we do not yet have feedback on their effectiveness,” he points out. “We are being asked for an additional effort of a billion euros when there has already been a sort of flurry of measures passed by decree in recent months,” adds Éric Gautron, FO representative for this negotiation.

Recently, the duration of sick leave has been capped at one month since September, and, from November 1, the ceiling on daily allowances (IJ) for sick leave for work accidents and occupational illnesses will be lowered to 1.8 SMIC. In April 2025, the government had already scaled back on “classic” stops, lowering the IJ ceiling to 1.4 SMIC. “We see a lot of employees paying the bill, if there are to be savings, it will have to be balanced”, suggesting that employers will also have to make efforts, warns Éric Gautron.

Employers are pushing for a non-compensable deficiency On the side of employers' organizations, we are pushing to change behavior, pointing out the abusive use of certain judgments. “We must change behavior across the entire chain of actors, general practitioners, occupational physicians, on the internet, employees, etc.,” argues Éric Chevée, vice-president of Entrepreneurs (ex-CPME). The latter bitterly regrets a decision of the Constitutional Council, dating back to December 20, 2022 after the examination of the Social Security budget: the Sages of rue Montpensier had in fact opposed the reimbursement of sick leave prescribed by teleconsultation.

Machine-translated from French