The assembly area at the Toyota factory in Onnaing on May 19, 2020. – Sarah ALCALAY / SIPA
The crisis of coronavirus, which has led to the total and brutal shutdown of many sectors of activity, considerably weakens
workers vulnerable but it also strikes new ones that risk being “lastingly impacted”, according to a study presented this Wednesday by
France Strategy.
These “new vulnerable”, who represent around 4.3 million people, work in hotels and restaurants, culture and transport. They saw their professional activity, “which requires assemblies”, “permanently stopped” and it risks being “lastingly impacted”, according to the government body.
Among them, a number of young workers without diplomas, or retrained after a job loss, in part-time and atypical hours, and in small or very small companies, with “a very high share of fragile status (fixed-term contracts, temporary workers, autoentrepreneurs, etc.) to the average of the trades ”.
New entries in “the vulnerable forever”
Many have seen their sales fall, have great cash flow difficulties, while they “have the lowest median salary of all job categories”, far below the average median salary of 1,800 euros net monthly, according to France Strategy which lists four other categories of jobs.
These “new vulnerable” join, says the organization, “the vulnerable forever”, estimated to be almost the same number (4.2 million), “workers, artisans, workers in industry and construction” also precarious status , and “first impacted during crises”, especially in 2008 when these sectors saw their workforce considerably reduced.
Their economic vulnerability is combined with “physical hardship”, “intensity of work (assembly line)” and often “a situation of declared disability” and recognized as well as “financial vulnerability”. Many, subject to partial unemployment with the health crisis have seen their incomes fall, while their median income is between 1,600 and 1,630 euros, below most employees in France.
“Frontline workers”, teleworkers …
Among the other job categories, variously impacted by the crisis, France Stratégie identifies the “workers on the front” (health, safety, agriculture, cleanliness, education) which it assesses as “10.4 million people”, including two out of three are women, poorly remunerated, with the activity maintained because considered essential and confronted with a direct risk of infection [sauf cas spécifique de l’enseignement à distance pour les enseignants pendant le confinement].
The organization also mentions teleworkers (5 million people, according to the Ministry of Labor), “mainly executives”, qualified, permanent contracts and “fairly protected by the workforce” but “very busy during the crisis”, and exposed at a certain risk of “hyperconnectivity”.
Last group identified, not quantified: professionals who cannot telework and in partial activity, “very massively on permanent contracts”, working in administrative support functions, middle managers, IT technicians, bank employees or secretaries, whose distance from the professional sphere could generate a “de-socialization”.
–
