[Les salaires des métiers de la seconde ligne restent bien en-dessous des salaires moyens du secteur privé, met en évidence Christine Erhel, professeure au Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM, Paris), titulaire de la chaire Economie du travail et de l’emploi, et directrice du Centre d’études de l’emploi et du travail (CEET). Elle mène des recherches en économie du travail, particulièrement sur les questions de réformes du marché du travail et de qualité de l’emploi. En 2020-2021, elle a rédigé le rapport de la mission pour la reconnaissance des travailleurs de la « deuxième ligne », avec Sophie Moreau-Follenfant. Dans cet article, elle dresse un portrait de ces travailleurs, et de leurs conditions de travail et d’emploi difficiles.]
The Covid-related health crisis has highlighted the particular contribution of certain professions to the functioning of society and the economy. A large part of these professions, most often qualified as “key professions” or “essential professions” in the international literature, cannot be carried out by teleworking and therefore involve travel and work on site, whatever the conditions ( including in the context of a pandemic where contact translates into an increased risk of contamination).
Essential workers were thus most often on the ” forehead “ of the Covid, in “first” or in “second line”to use the distinction proposed by the President of the Republic in a speech of April 13, 2020.
Beyond the political dimension and the display of revaluation policies, such as the revaluation of remuneration for medical and non-medical professions in health establishments and accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) in the Ségur de health (July 2020), the plan to increase the salaries and careers of police officers (Beauvau de la sécurité, from February to May 2021), or even the mission to support social partners in the process of recognition of jobs in the “second line” (“Report of the mission to support the social partners in the process of recognizing second-line workers”19 December 2021), the health crisis has led to the development of research work specifically focusing on these professions, whether at the international (ILO, 2023) or national level. (Thomas Amoss et al, 2021).
In France, the analyzes focused on “second line” jobs, for which the diagnosis in terms of working and employment conditions remained patchy and which also appeared as “invisible”in the words of Denis Maillard (Indispensable but invisible?Editions de l’Aube, 2021), even though they are necessary for the continuity of economic and social life.
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