FOCUS

Olympics 2024: the issue of volunteers at the heart of a controversy

The Olympic rings in front of the Paris City Hall. AFP - BEHROUZ MEHRI

Text by: Baptiste Coulon

7 min

The Paris Olympics will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024. The organization needs 45,000 volunteers, responsible for welcoming the public, athletes and the media. Despite criticism of their status, applications poured in from all over the world.

Advertising

Read more

Boris, in his twenties, is from Aveyron, in the south of France. In professional reconversion in events, he recently took on volunteer missions in the world of music. The Olympics? The perfect opportunity to test sports volunteering, which he has never practiced before. Especially since he is a sports enthusiast: judo, running, tennis, climbing ... Applying then seems obvious. "The Olympic Games are still the major sporting event in the world, there is no equivalent for me, it's the best," enthuses the young man. I can't wait to see if I'll be accepted as a volunteer. It's going to be a big selection, but I think it's worth it. And even if I'm not caught, at least I'll have tried.

Boris is one of 300,000 people who have signed up to volunteer for the 2024 Olympics. He filled out a long personality questionnaire and ticked off volunteer assignments on basketball, swimming or athletics events. The selection will be tough: there are "only" 45,000 places, or about 15% chance of being selected. The results will be known at the end of the year.

The organization also welcomes this runaway. "Compared to the Tokyo Games in 2020, it's 50% more candidates with 101 French departments represented and more than 190 countries," says Alexandre Morenon-Condé, head of the volunteer program at the Olympic Games. We are very surprised to see the international enthusiasm around the volunteer program. We did not expect to see such a large volume of international applicants. This proves the strong appeal of the Paris 2024 project, Paris and the international France.

Criticism of the status of volunteers

But of the 300,000 registered, how many will have the luxury of paying for transport to Paris and the rental of accommodation during the two weeks of competition? It is a bet that the price of rentals will explode. However, the organization of the Olympic Games will not support either. Only meals and on-site transportation from accommodation to Olympic venues will be covered. Especially since the 45,000 volunteers will not be paid, since it is volunteering.

These criticisms were made in an article published on the website of the online media Basta! on April 3 and signed by several collectives or associations opposed to the holding of the Paris Olympics, including Sacking 2024 or the citizen movement Youth for Climate. They denounce the economic, ecological, democratic consequences... But also social. For these opponents, making 45,000 people work for free is akin to hidden work. "Volunteers would have job descriptions, missions, line managers and their presence would be essential to the smooth running of the Games. The "volunteers" would therefore be at the disposal of the Cojop [Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games of Paris], would perform their service in accordance with directives without being able to freely go about personal occupations: the presumption of salaried employment is total, "note the signatories of the tribune.

« 

The Olympic Games are a privately owned brand that will make money, profits and does not pay taxes in France, denounces Antoine (his first name has been changed), member of the collective Sacking 2024. We are sold the fact that it will make incredible economic benefits for small merchants when experience shows us that this is not the case. And behind it, we will ask for 45,000 volunteers to come and work for free for the Olympic Games. It's still scandalous!

The young man signed up anyway. With one idea in mind: to infiltrate the organization to carry out militant actions. "First, you can register and not go. It can also be a work-to-rule strike. In other words, doing your job badly, or too slowly, or welcoming tourists by pointing them in the wrong direction. You can go there and do propaganda, talk to other volunteers and describe the true face of the Olympics. There are plenty of possibilities," explains Antoine. Participating will above all allow these activists to prove the potential hidden work they denounce. As such, Saccage 2024 does not exclude legal recourse before an industrial tribunal.

► Also listen: Olympics 2024: "There is an amalgam between political controversy and the desire to organize beautiful games"

The Olympic Volunteering Charter

The organization of the 2024 Olympics brushes off criticism. "The challenge is not to pay or not to remunerate, it is to allow 45,000 people to experience the Games from the inside and behind the scenes of the biggest international sporting event," said Alexandre Morenon-Condé. In 2004, I was lucky enough to volunteer at the Olympics in Athens, Greece, I was a student at the time and I had to move abroad, find accommodation, which was not easy, and clearly it changed my life. I've created incredible relationships, and these are emotions I'll carry for the rest of my life. "The only thing left for the organization to defend the Games is to play on intangible elements such as pride, the chance to participate in an international event, or legacy," Antoine replies.

To show its white paw in the face of these criticisms, the organization also relies on the Olympic and Paralympic Volunteering Charter, framed by the law on the organization of the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and its article 8. These 40 pages detail and frame the status of these volunteers and their missions. It is signed by each candidate at the time of registration, explains Alexandre Morenon-Condé, of Paris 2024: "We worked on this charter for many months with all the State services concerned, and in particular the Directorate General of Labour, but not only, to define this charter and ensure that there was no possible situation of requalification [from volunteering to salaried work].

► Read also: Olympics 2024: the grumbling of MEPs against "intelligent video surveillance"

Little chance of successful proceedings

Little chance that concealed work will be recognized before an industrial tribunal, concludes Eva Touboul, a French lawyer specializing in labor law, reading the 40 pages. "Unless they can prove that these volunteers are made to work within the framework of very clear instructions, that they are made to work within the framework of a cadence, that they can be sanctioned by ending volunteering for example, there is no work," she says. Above all, they will be free to leave. The charter allows them to leave whenever they want, without compensation that would be due to Paris 2024. That's really what distinguishes them from salaried workers. "This adherence to the Charter does not preclude the right of the Olympic and Paralympic volunteer to withdraw his commitment at any time, for any reason whatsoever," says the Charter in its section 1.

For Eva Touboul, therefore, there is little chance that justice will rule in favor of these activists in the event of an appeal for concealed work. However, this is not what will discourage those interviewed from taking action. The organization warned: administrative investigations will be conducted on each volunteer drawn at random to avoid any disruption.

► Also listen: Breakdancing and skateboarding, when urban sports reach the Olympics

Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Read on on the same topics:

• Olympic Games
• Paris
• France
• Olympics 2024
• Our selection