Toques blanches and bow ties, the cooks and butlers of the event, in the judgment of the fact of the epidemic of Covid-19, expressed Wednesday in Paris, Cannes and Bordeaux for the extension of their rights to unemployment benefits and the taking into account of their status as intermittent.

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Motionless under a blazing sun, nearly 800 “extras” in great outfit – immaculate shirt and black suit – were parked silently on the Site of the Hotel de Ville in Paris, brandishing placards, “Mr. President, really sure not to have forgotten anyone ?” or even “We have served with pride, we are reaping the precariousness”.

Of the employees of the restoration show, in Paris, on 24 June 2020. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

These personal called in reinforcement for weddings, matches, shows or cocktails departments have seen their activity reduced to nil by the crisis of the Covid. “We should be at a peak of activity in June, and is nailed to the house,” says Amanda, 30 years. “Normally, we have 150 to 250 hours per month to this period and it’s charging our rights, then we are depleting our rights and we do not open new”.

Maria, head for the caterer, Flower of may and extra for 30 years “has never known it. Usually, it was off-peak periods, in February for example, but this is a disaster”.

“hell”

In Bordeaux, they were several tens – 82 according to the organisers arranged in cross human before 7am Place de la Bourse, to mark “the death of the profession”.

“The Covid, it is the last convulsion of our corporation. It is a long descent to the underworld”, indicated to the AFP Franck Chapoutier, representing the Gironde department of the OPRE (Organization of the catering staff in the event).

After a reform of their status of ” intermittents in 2014 that “greatly reduces the calculations of compensation by Pôle Emploi, we have lost all the benefits because of the Covid”, he added.

“The structures have been aided by government subsidies but we, we die to small fire. The profession of an extra-event, a real know-how, is going to disappear, it’s going to be a job booster, a student job”.

Registered in the RSA

In Cannes, about 200 hostesses, drivers, cooks, pastry chefs and other professionals in the small kiln demonstrated with the support of the Coordination of the intermittents du spectacle and colleagues of Toulon and Marseille, before going in procession to the city hall where mayor David Lisnard (LR) had given its support to the 26 may.

The protesters, banned on the steps of the iconic Palais des Festivals, where they often work in normal times, served coffee and pastries to the police and passers-by : “Our business, this is the home !”, explains Thierry Le Gall, pastry cook of Lenôtre Côte d’azur, at the initiative of the four previous events in Cannes, Nice, Grasse and Antibes.

The “extras” are an extension of their rights, like the intermittent live-performance workers who have obtained a “year in white”. They also want to return to a status suitable to their craft. “Annex 4 which was part of their business has been emptied of its meaning in 2014 and to be removed in 2017, while the new calculation of the fees resulted in a 22% decrease in average allocations, according to the calculations of Unédic,” explains Denis Gravouil, negotiator for the CGT of the unemployment insurance.

“I have exhausted my rights at the end of may and I had to register for the RSA, I don’t know how I’m going to pay the rent, bills, petrol for the car…” lists Salmi Salah, 3 children, came to express to Paris from Joinville-le-Pont (Val-de-Marne).

The event, which brings together the organisers of some 1,200 shows and fairs, generates in France 4.3 billion euros of annual turnover and to live according to the OPRE 20.000 extras in hotels and restaurants.

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