In response to a mother who is worried about her son’s difficulties at the end of his rights, Emmanuel Macron claims to be able to find “ten jobs” in the Old Port in Marseille. LFI MP for Haute-Garonne Hadrien Clouet says he is “shocked” by these comments.
What did you think of the Emmanuel Macron’s statements on the jobs available in the Old Port?
I am shocked. Saying that he finds ten jobs on the Old Port is fine, but there are 102,000 people registered with Pôle emploi in Marseille: that leaves a lot of people out in the cold. In France: there are more people looking for work than there are available offers.
It is primarily the most qualified or those who have just left a job who manage to get hired. It is not ten but 3,000 offers that are needed on the Old Port! It is no coincidence that Emmanuel Macron chose to mention the hotel and catering industry, the sector where employers are resisting any wage increase and where an agreement has been signed with certain countries to bring in lower-paid workers.
How can this young man from Marseille who is no longer receiving RSA find a job? Should he go to the Old Port?
This is the idea that you should take any offer when you are at the end of your rights. People who are made to change jobs every two years are unable to improve their skills. They are trapped in a spiral. When you are offered a hard job on Sunday evenings at minimum wage, it doesn’t shock me that you can’t hire them. If you want to recruit someone who won’t have a family life, 30 km from home, you have to pay them properly.
However, there are thousands of unfilled jobs, particularly in the hotel and catering industry.
It is only 1% of offers that do not find takers. It must be remembered that there are twenty million recruitments each year for 300,000 unfilled jobs. More than 98% of offers find takers, I don’t call that a disaster.
On the other hand, there is work to be done on the quality of offers. There are sectors where employers are making efforts but others where people are mistreated. We need to think about how we can improve working conditions, secure contracts and increase salaries.
The government wants to achieve full employment. Do you believe in it?
I don’t believe it at all. We focus on the unemployment rate. However, it is enough to give a person an internship of one hour per week to be out of the figures. A recent report estimates that seven million people are looking for work in France because many people are not registered with the public employment service.
And is conditional RSA a good idea?
It’s a perversion on several levels. The RSA is a vital minimum, the idea that in a modern society, we don’t let people die. It’s 600 euros to survive. The problem in this country is that beneficiaries have no support and those who want an appointment can’t get one. We’re told that there will be 40 beneficiaries per advisor. So we’d have to hire 50,000. We’ll talk about it again the day they’re recruited. This project is a way of putting pressure on beneficiaries, of forcing them to accept low-paid jobs.
