How Does France Violate Workers’ Rights Within Its Borders?

In September 2017, during the 131st Session of the International Olympic Committee, Paris was chosen to host the 2024 Summer Games after its rival Los Angeles withdrew. Three years later, the French government launched preparations for the biggest international sporting event, with a budget of 4.38 billion euros.

Among the ongoing construction of sports and hotel facilities at the Olympic Village in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis is a human tragedy of the employment of irregular migrants, or “paperless” as the French term describes them, who are forced to work in harsh conditions, without adequate protection, and with cheap wages.

In the form of “modern slavery,” as defined by the United Nations, these workers do not have the right to complain because of their illegal residency status.

On the other hand, this file reveals the hypocrisy of the French elite, its silence on these humanitarian violations in preparation for the Olympic Games, as well as its heinous incitement campaign against the World Cup in Qatar under the pretext of violating workers’ rights, as Paris was one of the European cities that announced a boycott of World Cup for the same reason, which the Arab country considered “politicized propaganda based on false and misleading information.”

 

Exploitation of Workers

The first reveal of the exploitation of irregular migrant workers dates back to last May when a group of 12 irregular migrants from Mali decided to submit their complaint to the French union (General Confederation of Labor), asking it to stand by them and defend them against their exploiters.

Among them, a young man in his thirties named Moussa, who, after months of working in poor conditions in one of the construction workshops for the Olympics, decided to go to the Labor Confederation and tell them that he was working without a contract. The decision came after a long time of confusion and bitter fears that he would be deported to Mali if he revealed himself to the authorities.

Speaking to the Libération newspaper, Moussa recounted his suffering: “We don’t have rights, we don’t have work clothes, we don’t have safety shoes available, we aren’t given a transport card, we don’t have medical insurance, we don’t even have a contract. If you get sick or injured, the manager will compensate you with another worker the next day.”

In a recent investigation into the case, the French newspaper reveals that the recruitment of these workers often occurs secretly through workers like them, as employers take advantage of their need for work and their situation that strips them of all rights, making them cheap labor and exempting employers from paying all legal obligations towards them. According to the testimony of these workers, their salary does not exceed 80 euros per day.

Revealing one of the manipulation methods used by employers, Moussa said: “After saying that enough was enough, we threatened to strike. Of course, our line manager didn’t like that, but he was forced to respond. In the end, we signed permanent employment contracts with them, but later discovered that they were worthless, just papers provided by the company to social security.”

The Libération investigation into the manipulations adds, quoting the local secretary general of the General Confederation of Labour in Bobigny, Jean-Albert Guaido, as saying that “the person who pays is not necessarily the person on the site. So much so that it is impossible to be sure who is really hiring them.”

 

Hypocrisy and Slavery

Modern slavery is defined as the illegal exploitation of persons for personal or commercial gain, covering a wide range of abuses and exploitation, including forced labor.

These are particularly evident in the case of informal workers at Olympic sites, as well as hundreds of others in similar conditions.

In addition, the French Interior Ministry estimates that there are between 700,000 and 600,000 irregular migrants in the country, mostly from Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. Those of whom are exploited in this type of illegal work, under harsh conditions and for low wages.

The hypocrisy of the French elite, led by the Paris City Council, was quick to launch a hostile and incendiary campaign against Qatar for allegedly violating workers’ rights during the preparations for the World Cup. The capital has even boycotted the broadcast of the sporting event among other European cities.

The French municipalities involved in the campaign against the World Cup in Qatar seem to have forgotten that the Museum of Man in Paris displays the skulls of Algerian resisters who were beheaded during the French occupation of Algeria, and the Algerians consider the museum a glorification of sin and French terrorism committed against their parents and grandparents.

They also did not attack the 2008 Olympics in China or the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but more importantly, they completely ignored that France itself faces accusations of exploiting illegal labor in the construction of the facilities for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Journalist Nazih al-Ahdab asked French municipalities about following up on the crimes of the French army in Niger and Mali, where France’s charges ranged from occupying these countries to supporting terrorism.