Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Julien Mattia / ANADOLU AGENCY / Anadolu Agency via AFP 7:36 p.m., April 5, 2024, modified at 7:38 p.m., April 5, 2024
On the occasion of the Olympic Games, the RATP is recruiting 1,000 temporary workers to welcome tourists during the summer, the company expects 1.5 million more travelers than a typical summer. The candidates are “99%” students, and it is “often their first interview”. The contracts offered range from two and a half to five weeks, paid at the hourly minimum wage.
The RATP is recruiting 1,000 temporary workers this week to welcome tourists during the summer, which will see Paris transformed by the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “I don’t see the Gare du Nord on line 2, why?” (I don't see the Gare du Nord on line 2, why?), a recruiting agent asked a candidate on Friday at the RATP headquarters in Paris.
RATP usually hires 200 seasonal workers during its peak periods
English test, interview: 1,700 candidates have been lining up since Thursday and until Saturday to obtain one of the reception agent positions in the hot spots of the summer in Parisian transport. These “purple vests” will have the mission of welcoming and informing travelers from all over the world and selling them passes. The RATP expects 1.5 million more travelers than during a typical summer.
“English was easy,” commented Nasir Beekhy, 18, from Montreuil, in Seine-Saint-Denis, after being selected. This science student was applying for his first job in his mother's company, a reception agent, because the RATP first called on relatives of the group's 71,000 employees. “We are trying to create collective emulation” among employees, explained Jérôme Heine, director of human resources for this reception service. “We ask for fluency in speaking, a smile, kindness.”
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The job is paid at the hourly minimum wage, on a temporary basis, with contracts ranging from two and a half to five weeks. It's about being smiling, staying on your feet for a long time and sometimes working late evenings and weekends, depending on the Olympic events in particular. RATP usually hires 200 seasonal workers during its peak periods. Gaëlle Kouassi, 18, received the announcement from a “friend of a friend”. “In English, it was simple and during the meeting, it was nice,” said this public administration student at the end of the interview. “Welcome to RATP,” Frantz Basinc, from the agency’s recruitment department, had said to him a little before.
The candidates are “99% students, it’s often their first interview,” he said. “If they are at least motivated and they have passed the English test, that’s fine. I haven’t fired anyone today,” he said. However, the recruiter had just asked a tricky question, in English: “So, it is not possible to stop at La Chapelle and go to Gare du Nord by walking?” To answer, you had to know that there is a tunnel between the two. “I had a fan, the son of a train driver,” said Jérôme Heine. “It’s a first contact with the RATP, if it can create vocations.” The RATP has also planned 5,300 recruitments during this Olympic year, including 600 station agents before the summer.