They are maneuver, diver, nanny or cleaning lady. They work without pay sheet, sometimes for years and testify to their difficulties and their aspirations, while they hope to benefit from the relaxation of the rules for the so -called “tension” trades.
by Julia Pascual
Ousmane Bangoura would like the French to know. Let him “shatter” on the construction sites, which he sometimes returns home in the evening “his arms swollen by pain”, that he “helps to build” France. “I hear that we do not know the values or that we are unemployed, reports this 27-year-old Guinean, undocumented. But I came to work.”
since he arrived, in 2017, Ousmane A Always worked, even during confinement. However, he has only one pay leaf, which corresponds to a few days in a sorting factory in Maine-et-Loire, in 2019. Otherwise, several bosses promised to declare it but, none has keep word. “It is in their interest, I receive maximum 50 euros per day,” he says.
The young man, met thanks to the center of mutual aid for asylum seekers and refugees from Secours Catholique, where he is a volunteer, feels both “discouraged” and “revolted” to be “exploited on Works “in a country to which he carries” a sincere love “. He does not see how to “get out of the hole” in which his irregular administrative situation maintains him. In the absence of payroll sheets, he cannot claim regularization. The 2012 Valls circular provides for the possibility of an “exceptional admission to the stay” for employees provided that they present between eight and twenty-four pay slips and a promise of hiring, after three to five years of presence in France.
“They take advantage of me”
The government has announced that they want to soften these rules in “trades in tension”, such as building, agriculture or catering. If he had papers, Ousmane Bangoura would have “a normal life, like everyone else”. It could accommodate otherwise than in the room that it sublets 350 euros per month in the Val-d’Oise and where the moisture stains macule a corner of the ceiling. He could change jobs. “When I see the announcements of the RATP, it finds my heart,” says this former bus driver.
Sidibe Sambanou also watches with envy the job offers for maneuver on the indeed research site. Regularly, it is requested by SMS or by email. The CV of this 35-year-old Malian, who lives in Seine-et-Marne, interests. He knows how to set up concrete blocks, lay joints, prosecution, tiles, mortar, plaster, painting … “I like the building, I can be a team leader”, he .
Sidibe has a lot of photos in his phone who tell all the sites he has been scoured since he arrived in October 2018. By scrolling them, he comes across a photo of the work medal awarded, In 2005, by France to his father. He was a worker in logistics and shared his life between the Kayes region and the 19 e arrondissement of Paris.
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