Accusations that are difficult given the notoriety of the establishments. Four major French museums including the most visited in the world, The Louvredo they illegally employ labor? This is the subject of complaints filed this week by the Sud-Culture union, against a backdrop of criticism of outsourcing in the world of culture. These complaints, also mentioned by Libérationwere sent by mail on Wednesday according to a source close to the matter to AFP.
In addition to the most visited museum in the world (8.9 million visitors in 2023), two other complaints filed in Paris target the Bourse de commerce-Pinault Collection and the Golden Gate Palacewhile a complaint targets the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem) in Marseille.
The Mucem gives its version
Contacted, Le Louvre indicated that it had “no information” regarding such a complaint, and “never commented” on a possible ongoing investigation. THE Mucem provided a long response, indicating in particular that “the Ministry of Culture decided from the start of the Mucem project that (some) missions would be outsourced within the framework of public contracts, as is the case in other national museums” .
The Marseille museum indicated that an internal organization made it possible to “ensure that the service provider’s staff are not subordinate to Mucem staff” and that human resources issues “are handled directly by the service provider”, “without intervention » from the Mucem.
Service providers managed by internal teams
The process denounced is the same each time: these museums are accused of having issued calls for tenders relating to various services (reception, mediation in the room, sales, cloakroom, audio guides, etc.) for which private companies put available to employees. On paper, this labor loan is perfectly legal.
But according to the complainants, it raises questions because “the loaned employees are in reality directly subordinate to the teams” of the museums, are “treated differently from internal agents” with working conditions which would be less good, and would ultimately be ” exclusively for profit.
For the plaintiffs, “the stated objective” is to free museums “from the constraints of managing logistical tasks. This outsourcing mechanism has often been put in place by public cultural establishments to compensate for the employment ceilings set by budgetary texts and the Ministry of Culture. » “The deleterious effects caused by these outsourcing practices on the working conditions of employees have been denounced on numerous occasions by the press,” adds Sud-Culture.
A massive outsourcing practice?
In the example of the Louvre, 25 employees responsible for audio guides would first have been outsourced in 2019. “Comparing their situation with that of the agents who remained hired by the Museum, as well as that of the agents of other service providers (shop and surveillance) however, placed them in situations of differential treatment,” says the complaint. But in 2023, again according to the complainants, this time all reception and surveillance activities at the museum housing the Mona Lisa, i.e. 65 additional positions, would have been entrusted to the private sector.
Sud-Culture underlines that this “outsourcing is a practice that has massively affected cultural establishments for several years: the Center Pompidou-Metz (2010), the Louvre-Lens (2012), the Palais de Tokyo (2012), the MuCEM ( 2013) the Louis Vuitton Foundation (2014), etc. »
