This was a revelation for some observers, a confirmation for others. During the Covid-19 pandemic, wage-earning institutions (unionism, social security, etc.) were pillars on which the world of work was able to rely to “prevent the health crisis from being coupled with a serious economic and social crisis”. This is the whole point of the collective work Faced with Covid, the challenge of employment (La Dispute), conducted under the direction of sociologist Claude Didry.
This essay offers the reader the opportunity to explore several sectors of activity in the time of Covid. Automotive industry, fast food, banking, public hospital… In each of them, researchers show the daily life of a human collective evolving to the rhythm of epidemic waves. In doing so, they highlight the role that staff representatives will play in the urgent construction of a new work organization.
The authors start from an observation: the crisis occurs in a degraded socio-economic context. Certain sectors are in crisis, threats to employment are emerging in many companies. In France, austerity policies result, for example, in “a continued decline in the number of hospital beds over the [trente dernières années] ».
At the same time, the work shows that wage employment, whose imminent disappearance is constantly predicted, is attacked from all sides. “The reforms of 2016 (El Khomri law) and 2017 (Macron orders) crown [une] decade of unprecedented social setbacks: with them, it is the dismissal and industrial tribunal procedures, the weight of the sector in collective bargaining, the staff representative institutions and even the employment contract which are undermined. »
However, these weakened institutions will demonstrate their importance at a time of crisis – which requires “an armistice to the war against wage labor”, for the authors. The example of the hospital sector is, in this regard, emblematic.
An effective coordination space
Unlike private companies, the health, safety and working conditions committees (CHSCT) are still in place – their abolition took place in the public service in 2022 (since replaced by the social administration committee and by the establishment social committee in the hospital public service).
The essay explains that they were able to establish themselves as “the place for a continuous exchange between management representatives and staff elected officials as a relay for the daily concerns of staff”. An effective coordination space where concrete solutions could be built.
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