- After Cannes on Tuesday, seasonal workers and extras from the Côte d'Azur meet this Friday in Grasse.
- They ask in particular that during the period of confinement, their unemployment rights be frozen, like the intermittent of the spectacle.
- Without contracts since containment, this million workers are not entitled, for the majority of them, to partial unemployment and have few prospects for the future.
Fair of Nice, Festival of Cannes, Monaco Grand Prix, horse racing… so many great prestigious events canceled on the Côte d'Azur because of the health crisis linked to Covid-19 and which usually provide seasonal living and extras.
This active population which connects throughout the year fixed-term contracts (CDD), for seasonal workers, and sometimes daily contracts for extras, represents more than a million people in France. They are in anxiety today.
To testify to this situation, Audrey, Edwige and Elodie, responsible for seasonal activities in holiday villages launched a hashtag on Twitter #jesuissaisonnier and a Facebook page of the same name which has more than 1,200 members.
They even made a video, to put a face on situations. “We feel completely forgotten. We are invisible, silent, but here we are, ”says Audrey, who edited this ten-minute video.
No partial unemployment or freezing of benefits
In "normal" times, Semya Chellali, 52-year-old Niçoise, works as an extra in the restaurant and hotel industry. Like all extras and seasonal workers, she works continuously from March to November. "We have 3 pm days," says Anita, head waiter or butler according to her contracts.
Between two seasons, these workers live thanks to unemployment benefits that they were able to contribute during all these months worked. They then renew these rights with each new contract.
“We are working to recharge our rights. It covers us when we are stopped, it allows us to continue to live well, ”explains Anita.
However, with the health crisis and the ensuing confinement, these workers were unable to sign new contracts. Some even canceled out, even though the peak season - which begins in March - started: “The coronavirus has arrived at the period that allows you to get work and spend the winter without any problems. In February, the people who booked us for March canceled, ”says Marc, butler.
Without signed contracts, they have no partial unemployment or the possibility of contributing for new rights. Some even came to the end of benefits during the confinement period. “I have exhausted my rights. I was extended until May 31 [an exceptional measure taken by the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud for the unemployed who are coming to the end of their rights]. And there, I have more work ”, explains Marc.
A very slow recovery on the Côte d'Azur
On the coast, the cancellation of events is linked and despite the reopening of restaurants and bars and the possibility for the French to go on vacation in France, these seasonal workers have little hope: "In catering, they don't even know if they're going to keep their own employees. So seasonal workers and extras will not be hired, ”says Marc.
Same story with Semya: "According to our officials, we will not resume work before March 2021. There is still this epidemic and foreigners, for the moment will not come". “We, our customers here are American, Russian and Asian. They will not come before March 2021, "says Marc. Terminal 1 at Nice airport should not reopen until that date.
"Job Mobilization" the seasonal job platform
“Seasonal workers are job seekers like the others. They create unemployment rights. At present, the objective is that they can find jobs. We have set up a dedicated platform, ”explains the management of Pôle Emploi.
The “employment mobilization” platform brings together all seasonal job offers. “Every day I apply. But no answers, ”laments Semya. “I found an extra job in a clinic where I clean the rooms and deliver the meals. But there it is finished, explains Evelyne, cook working also in extra in Nice. “The period is very complicated. It is not my job to clean rooms I like cooking, for ten years I have been doing this. I want to find my activity. You know, we cry about it, ”sighs this Azurean woman.
Contacted, the Ministry of Labor informs that a "cycle of consultations which will include unemployment insurance" is underway. In the meantime, Marc, Anita Evelyne and Semya will meet this Friday in Grasse to make their voices heard.
Nice
Nice: "If it lasts, the layoffs will come" ... Very worried, the airport workers demonstrate
Economy
Deconfinement in Paca: The tourism sector in the starting blocks before summer
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Deconfinement
- Job
- Labor law
- Tourism
- Economy
- Nice