Will volunteers be paid at the 2024 Olympics? This is what Alexis Corbière, deputy La France insoumise of Seine-Saint-Denis, invited to the microphone ofEurope 1 this Wednesday morning.
The elected representative of Seine-Saint-Denis, where a good part of the Games will take place, asked the government that the 45,000 volunteers who will participate in the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games can be paid, denouncing a “diversion” volunteering.
Last March, Alexis Corbière had already mentioned a “hidden work” concerning this practice, recalling that nearly 9 billion euros in revenue are expected on the occasion of these games.
45,000 young volunteers for the next Olympic Games in #Paris. The money will however be there: nearly 9 billion euros in expected revenue.
It is a diversion from the spirit of volunteerism. Is there not, in truth, a concealed work? #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/lRMa9B5l2k
— Alexis Corbiere (@alexiscorbiere) March 15, 2023
On August 8, MP LFI had already sent the government a written question on this subject. Volunteers must be requalified as “employees, under contract, so that they can receive an honest salary in view of their real functions and tasks”, he believes.
Recruitment method, job descriptions, precise schedules… so many elements cited by the deputy which constitute, according to him, “a bundle of clues leading to a supposed wage earner”.
“Young people who go to work 8 to 10 hours a day”
“It’s often young people who go to work eight to ten hours a day, six days a week, and won’t even be able to participate in one of the major sports competitions, after a while it’s disguised wage labor,” said he lamented. “When we make people work for 15 days at fairly high rates, we pay them”.
The elected official puts these working conditions into perspective with “the billions” that the event will generate and the “profits” expected by the sponsors.
“It’s a diversion of what the reality of volunteering is,” insists the deputy, who makes a distinction between the “indispensable” nature of volunteering for sports associations and the organization of major events such as the Olympics.
“It is not normal that all the people who go to work hard for 15 days are not paid at all. It is a diversion from the spirit of volunteerism. It’s hidden work,” says @alexiscorbiere about the 45,000 volunteers of the 2024 Olympics #Europe1 pic.twitter.com/8kWy7CAgk3
— Europe 1 (@Europe1) August 16, 2023
“Volunteering is essential to the sports movement. But the volunteering of people who take their time for small clubs, small associations, is one thing, but a big event that will brew billions of euros, I find that a bit spicy, ”explains he.
Opened in March 2023, the volunteer selection phase will be completed by the end of the year. The organizing committee of the Paris Olympics recorded “more than 300,000 applications”, during a registration period that lasted six weeks.
The 45,000 volunteers are split two-thirds for the Olympic Games (July 26-August 11) and one-third for the Paralympic Games (August 28-September 8).
