France Unveils Updated List of Labor Shortage Occupations, Sparking Union Debate

The new list of shortage occupations has been updated and transmitted to the social partners recently. The new version was sent on Friday, February 21 by the government to the social partners, before "a final national consultation", explained the Minister of Labor, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, on France Info. The new list will be the subject of discussions involving trade union and employer organizations at the end of the week before publication in the Official Journal.

This list of occupations, resulting "from consultations with professional federations", includes 80 professions that are broken down according to the labor needs of the different French regions, it is specified. The most sought-after occupations are: "salaried farmers", "home helpers and housekeepers", "kitchen helpers", "cooks", "domestic employees and cleaning staff", "salaried market gardeners/horticulturists". Île-de-France (41 occupations), Provence-Alpes-Côte-D’azur (39) and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (37 occupations) are the three regions with the most shortage occupations.

After the transmission of the new list, the prefects can "exceptionally" regularize undocumented workers employed in shortage occupations (construction, catering, personal assistance, etc.). They can obtain a one-year residence permit. Beforehand, they must meet certain conditions: have resided in France for at least three years, have held a salaried activity for at least 12 months out of the last 24, and have a clean criminal record. In January, the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, had sent a new circular to the prefects providing in particular that exceptional regularizations through work would now be refocused on shortage occupations.

After receiving the new list of shortage occupations, the unions express their feelings. "I don’t understand the methodology for building this list," scolds Jean-Albert Guidou, general secretary of the CGT local union in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), interviewed by InfoMigrants. He denounces a very partial consideration of the reality of the occupations practiced on the ground. "Île-de-France for example is the region that concentrates the most undocumented workers working in the fields of cleaning, logistics, structural work in construction, waste management... and these areas are not mentioned," explains the union leader.

Yet Île-de-France is the main tourist region of the country, with thousands of restaurants, "where the kitchens are filled with people in an irregular situation," notes Jean-Albert Guidou, stressing that qualified positions (engineer, executive, supervisor, IT...) are nevertheless included in the Île-de-France list, sectors that are not occupied by irregular workers.

And he concludes: "Are these lists built to allow companies to bring in workers from abroad and choose ’their migrants’? Or does the government not want to regularize undocumented workers? The answer is both."