The recruitment campaign for volunteers for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG) has just come to an end. 300,000 people have registered, the organizing committee announced on Thursday. But of this number, how many are “fake volunteers”, who are trying to derail the Games? And what are their motivations?
Because the anti-JOP, led by the Saccage 2024 collective and other ecology groups, have mounted a campaign of sabotage. It aims to encourage anyone who has a grudge against the event to apply, then at the choice, to “not go there”, “to strike while asking to be paid”, to go on a “zealous strike”, “express themselves, and show the true face of the JOP” or even collect evidence to go to the prud’hommes, as proposed by a forum of Basta Mediatitled “No volunteers for the JOP 2024: tutorial to spoil their hidden work campaign”, and signed by these same collectives.
“Hidden Work”
The first thing that the anti-JOP criticizes the competition for is seeking to employ 45,000 unpaid volunteers, while promising economic benefits which, according to them, are illusory. “I find it indecent that such a lucrative mega event gives itself the possibility of operating with so many volunteers, while there is a very profitable organization behind it. It’s as if a big company used lots of volunteers. For me it’s hidden work, ”argues Nora *, 25, student, who registered at the end of April on the JOP volunteer platform, which she intends to hack. “They arrive in 93, one of the poorest departments in France. They will not make any economic impact, the jobs created are precarious jobs, ”adds Yun*, also in the Saccage 2024 collective.
Several personalities have given their support to these infiltrators, including Gérard Filoche, trade unionist and politician, and above all a former labor inspector, for whom the job descriptions of the JOP volunteers are all about the employment contract. “They work 10 hours a day and 48 hours a week, have to follow orders, have prior training… It’s a work contract! gets carried away the trade unionist, for whom “any specialist in labor law” would affirm that this is concealed work. “What characterizes an employment contract is subordination. Volunteers are dependent on department heads, so there is a subordination, so it’s a work contract. They call it a volunteer charter, but it’s nonsense, the contract can be reclassified. We pigeonhole them”, advances Gérard Filoche, who finds this “shameful” whereas according to the calculations of the anti-JOPs, earning the minimum wage for volunteers would represent only 1% of the budget of the JOPs. “We promised a lot of nice things to the kids of 93 and in the end we only offer them a meal and volunteering” abounds the regional ecologist councilor Annie Lahmer.
“If someone wants to work, the solution exists”
Contacted by 20 minutes, Alexandre Morenon-Condé, deputy director in charge of the volunteer program, refutes these arguments “The Olympic and Paralympic volunteering charter is a document enshrined in the law of 2018. A lot of ministries are involved in defining all the assignments. We consulted the 2024 ethics committee, we wanted to define missions that do not expose us to a risk of requalification, and we wanted to limit the number of hours when normally, there is no limit. volunteer hours. For the manager, if the volunteer missions last 48 hours, it’s because “the volunteers don’t want to miss a beat”.
Couldn’t the organization, in this case, have planned, for example, a handful of volunteer hours and free performance hours per week, to thank these people who are not paid? “When you volunteer, you want to be behind the scenes of the event. We haven’t studied other models”, answers the manager curtly, who believes that “volunteering is in the DNA of French sports”. And adds: “We have more than a thousand jobs to fill, with a lot of jobs in private security, if someone wants to work, the solution exists. »
Pollution and destruction of trees
The anti-JOP have other motivations to derail the Games. They believe that these will be an “ecological disaster”, like Anna *, 18, student and member of Youth for Climate Île-de-France, who applied “with the idea of making things dysfunctional » and points to the destruction of the allotment gardens of Aubervilliers, to build an Olympic swimming pool there. Arthur* also cites the construction of the media village, which led, according to the very detailed argument of Saccage 2024, to the felling of trees and the destruction of “part of the Georges Valbon park”, with a ” deficit of 14 hectares”. The construction of the motorway interchange in the Pleyel district should also bring more pollution to the 700 children of the Pleyel – Anatole France school group. “It’s an ecological rampage,” says Yun *, who also points to the thousands of mascots, 80% made in China.
The anti-JOPs have many other reasons to be angry with the JOPs. Arthur* points out that the modern games were created by an admirer of Hitler and that the slogan of the Games, “Faster – Higher – Stronger”, is “a perfect slogan for capitalism”. Anna points to the “gentrification of working-class neighborhoods” around the Olympics site, where the price per square meter is increasing, and Yun to the “militarization of space”, since the package has been put on security.
A thousand bogus volunteers?
How many will these infiltrators be? According to Nora*, approximately 1,000 people gravitating in the Saccage 2024 network would have registered; Anna* estimates that “fifteen people” from Youth for Climate have taken the plunge.
But not sure that this is enough to really sabotage the plans of the Cojo (Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games). With 300,000 registrants, the JOP will have a very large waiting list of people ready to enlist. “We plan to have volunteers who can be mobilized in the event of the withdrawal of other volunteers”, explains Alexandre Morenon-Condé. Especially since, like anyone in the organization of the Olympic Games, the volunteers will be the subject of an administrative investigation, according to the deputy director, an investigation which could filter out a lot of infiltrators… “We are not at all worried,” says the head of the volunteer program.
However, the anti-JOPs are not giving up. For Arthur*, this tutorial for ruining the Olympics has already achieved one of its main objectives: “Getting people talking about anti-Olympism”.