The Paris Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024. The organization needs 45,000 volunteers, responsible for welcoming the public, the athletes and the media. Despite criticism of their status, nominations poured in from around the world.
Boris, in his twenties, is from Aveyron, in the south of France. In professional retraining in events, he has recently been doing volunteer missions in the world of music. Olympic Games ? 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 find out if I will 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 taken, at least I tried. »
Boris is one of 300,000 people who have registered to become a volunteer at the 2024 Olympics. He completed a long personality questionnaire and checked off volunteer missions on basketball, swimming or athletics events. The selection will be tough: there are “only” 45 000 places, or approximately 15% chance of being selected. The results will be known at the end of the year.
The organization also welcomes this excitement. ” Compared to the Tokyo Games in 2020, there are 50% more candidates with 101 French departments represented and more than 190 countries, argues Alexandre Morenon-Condé, head of the volunteer program at the organization of 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, of Paris and France internationally. »
Criticisms of the status of volunteers
But of the 300,000 registered, how many will have the luxury of paying for transport to Paris and renting accommodation during the two weeks of competition? It is to bet that the price of rentals will explode. However, the organization of the Olympic Games will support neither one nor the other. Only meals and on-site transportation, to travel from the place of accommodation to the Olympic sites, will be paid for. Especially since the 45,000 volunteers will not be paid, since it is voluntary work.
These criticisms were made in an op-ed published on the website of online media Basta! on April 3 and signed by several collectives or associations opposed to the holding of the Paris Olympics, including Saccage 2024 or the citizen movement Youth for Climate. They denounce the economic, ecological and democratic consequences.. But also social. For these opponents, making 45,000 people work for free is akin to concealed work. ” The volunteers would have job descriptions, missions, hierarchical superiors and their presence would be essential to the proper functioning of the Games. The “volunteers” would therefore be at the disposal of the Cojop [Comité d’organisation des Jeux olympiques de Paris]would perform their service by complying with directives without being able to freely pursue personal occupations: the presumption of salaried employment is total “, note the signatories of the tribune.
” The Olympic Games is a private property brand that will make money, profits and does not pay taxes in France, denounces Antoine (his first name has been changed), member of the Saccage 2024 collective. We are sold the fact that it will have incredible economic benefits for small traders when experience shows us that this is not the case. And behind that, we’re going to ask for 45,000 volunteers to come and work for the Olympic Games for free. It’s still outrageous! »
The young man still registered. 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 tell them the real face of the Olympic Games. There are plenty of possibilities », Details Antoine. Participating will above all allow these activists to prove the potential concealed work they denounce. As such, Saccage 2024 does not exclude legal action before a labor court.
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The Olympic Volunteer Charter
The organization of the 2024 Olympics sweeps away criticism. ” The challenge is not to remunerate 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.comments Alexandre Morenon-Condé. In 2004 I was lucky enough to volunteer at the Olympic Games 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 created incredible relationships, and these are emotions that I will carry all 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 the heritage “replied Antoine.
To show its credentials in the face of these criticisms, the organization is also based on the olympic and paralympic volunteering charterframed by the law relating to the organization of the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Gamesand its article 8. These 40 pages detail and frame the status of these volunteers and their missions. It is signed by each candidate during registration, explains Alexandre Morenon-Condé, from Paris 2024: “ We worked on this charter for many months with all of the State services concerned, and in particular the Directorate General for Labour, but not only, to define this charter and ensure that there was no possible situation of requalification [de bénévolat à salariat]. »
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Little chance that the procedures will succeed
It is unlikely that hidden work will be recognized before a labor court, concludes Eva Touboul, a French lawyer specializing in labor law, after reading the 40 pages. ” Unless they manage to 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 the volunteering for example, there is no workshe assures. Above all, they will be free to leave. The charter authorizes them to leave whenever they want, without compensation that would be due at Paris 2024. This is really what distinguishes them from wage earners. » “ This adherence to the Charter does not preclude the right of Olympic and Paralympic volunteers to withdraw their commitment at any time, for any reason whatsoever. “, indeed specifies the charter in its section 1.
For Eva Touboul, therefore, there is little chance that justice will decide in favor of these activists in the event of an appeal for concealed work. However, this is not what will discourage those we interviewed from taking action. The organization has warned: administrative investigations will be carried out on each volunteer drawn by lot to avoid any disruption.
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