Worried about their working conditions during the Paris Olympics, employees demonstrate

2 mins

“ The social fire » « if the flame of the Olympics burns the labor code » could be read on a banner. Security agents, catering, hotel and mass retail employees, several hundred people responded this Wednesday to the CGT’s call for mobilization, in front of the headquarters of the Organizing Committee of Olympic Gameswhere our journalist went Aram Mbengue. All are protesting in particular against a government decree allowing the suspension of weekly rest in certain companies during the Olympic Games.

“ Our employers will have our employees at their disposal 14 days, 7/7, or even until midnight for certain sectors. We are not against the Olympics. We are here to say that they must also serve the most precarious, who will once again be penalized », Claims Amar Lagha, general secretary of the CGT commerce and services, who is scathing against “ the speech of the President of the Republic who was wrong yesterday: he says that essential workers have been increased, that is false. Rather, it’s the shareholders. »

Contested by the unions, this exemption from compulsory weekly rest was granted at the end of November by a government decree to companies participating in the broadcast or organization of the Olympic Games over a period of almost a month this summer. “ If the government does not return » on this decree, “ we will carry out punchy actions throughout the Olympics; we will strike wherever possible », declared Amar Lagha, general secretary of the CGT Commerce and Services.

Employees in commerce and services promise mobilizations before, but also during and after the Olympic Games, if the government does not withdraw the decree authorizing the suspension of compulsory weekly rest.