Lhe power of the reactions aroused by the pension reform cannot be explained solely by the brutality of the measures announced. This sequence suddenly sheds harsh light on a situation that has remained relatively taboo until now: the extent of the labor crisis in France. Indeed, while many politicians call for venerating the “work value”, the French are struggling. Work has become for many of them unbearable and even, in the true sense of the term, unbearable.
This situation has, however, been well documented for a long time, both by the remarkable series of “Working conditions” surveys carried out in France by the department for the coordination of research, studies and statistics, and, in Europe, by Eurofound , as well as the work of researchers in the humanities and social sciences. Taking a close interest in it would undoubtedly have enabled the government to understand that extending the time spent at work before improving working conditions could only be seen as a real provocation.
According to the 2016 wave of working conditions survey exploited by the economist Thomas Coutrot, work contributes to psychological well-being for a third of those questioned, but to ill-being for more than half of them. As for the latest wave of the Eurofound survey, carried out in 2021 among more than 70,000 Europeans from 36 countries, it reveals all the more the very worrying situation of working conditions in France as it is based on European comparisons – the very ones that governments generally like to call upon to justify a reduction in existing rights or protections.
Violence and discrimination
According to this survey, health problems affect a significant proportion of the European workforce. Pain in the upper limbs is reported by 57% of workers, followed by back pain (54%), headaches (51%) and anxiety (30%). Physical exhaustion is reported by 23% of respondents, chronic illnesses by 20% and combined physical and emotional exhaustion by 13%. Almost a quarter of workers in Europe are at risk of depression.
But France occupies a particular position in this landscape: it appears very badly placed and even at the back of the pack in many categories, in particular constraints in work. For more than 43% of French people, their job always or often involves moving heavy loads (compared to less than 30% in the Netherlands and 35% in Europe). For more than 57% it involves painful or tiring positions, compared to 43% in Germany and 50% in Europe. These recurring results make it all the more incomprehensible the decision taken by the government of Emmanuel Macron in 2017 to remove four of the ten criteria of arduousness – including the carrying of heavy loads and painful postures – on the grounds that the exposure threshold would be unquantifiable.
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