Paris 2024 Olympics begins crackdown on undocumented construction workers
After the controversies surrounding the Football World Cup in Qatar, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games committee is keen to set a high standard on its construction sites. However, since the beginning of 2022, cases of exploitation of undocumented workers have multiplied.
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An army of construction workers is preparing next year's Olympic Games in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
Paid 80 euros per day and working between eight- and 11-hour shifts, these workers have to be multi-skilled. From operating machines, cleaning the site to carrying bags of cement when the crane breaks down.
"There are undocumented migrants who have a job at the Paris 2024 Olympic construction site. It's the same situation as in Qatar," Moussa, an undocumented worker in Saint-Denis, told RFI.
The company that hires them does not fulfil any of its legal obligations, Moussa and his colleague Daouda said.
"We have to buy the work clothes and helmets. Normally, the bosses have to provide all the equipment."
They also denounce their working conditions.
"When I got sick, my manager said either I continue working or if I don't want to, he will put someone else in my place. We have this fear: If I lose my job, how will I live?" says Moussa.
"Everyone knows what happens in the building industry, but no one talks about it", he adds.
Last September, Moussa and his colleagues went to talk to the CGT Union in Bobigny. Jean-Albert Guidon received them, alerted the labour inspectorate and the media.
Outsourcing the workforce
The trade unionist denounced the hypocrisy surrounding concealed work.
"This is the reality that all these subcontracted workers are experiencing on the Olympic construction sites, as on other construction sites in the Paris region and in France," explains Guidon.
"This is the way the construction sector is structured today. The big groups have outsourced part of the workforce, especially the workers and the least qualified workers."
Last December, the day after their story became public, Moussa and his colleagues lost their jobs and are now without income.
'Hypocrisy of political authorities'
The fact that France's upcoming sporting showcase is being put together with the help of illegal workers is becoming a source of political and social tension.
Trade unionist Bernard Thibault, who co-chairs the Paris 2024 Social Charter Monitoring Committee says there is "a great deal of hypocrisy on the part of the political authorities".
As a sign of the concern, the Labour Inspectorate has created a specialised unit that has been checking nearly one site a day for the past two years.
In June, nine irregular workers were identified on a site run by Solideo, the public company responsible for building facilities and infrastructure for the Olympics.
At the same time, a local public prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation into the "employment of foreigners without a permit in an organised gang".
Solideo swiftly "took the necessary steps" by terminating the contract of the offending subcontractor but also of the construction giant that used it.
Antoine du Souich, the company's strategy director told French news agency AFP that since then procedures have been tightened up, although he admitted it would be impossible to set up a system "entirely impervious" to such fraud.
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