2024-02-12 07:30:07
Ten hours: this is the median working hours of childminders working for private employers, observed by sociologists Geneviève Cresson, François-Xavier Devetter and Julie Lazès. This means that half of them exceed this duration every day. At 8 a.m., 77% of the childminders of the private employer are at work, compared to 51% of all French employees. At 6:15 p.m., the majority of them (54%) are still hard at work, compared to a quarter of all employees.
In 2019, the weekly working time of childminders was 41 hours 45, when the average of that of employees was 32 hours 25. If their working time seems colossal, it is only the emerging part of the ‘iceberg. While these 390,000 professionals in the care of children under 3 years old (97% women) enable parents to better reconcile professional and private life, they are far from being able to say the same.
In their contribution to the scientific mediation project “What do we know regarding work?” » from the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Evaluation of Public Policies (Liepp), broadcast in collaboration with Presses de Sciences Po on the site’s Employment channel Lemonde.frthe three researchers from the Lille Center for Sociological and Economic Studies and Research (Clersé) demonstrate that their work regularly extends beyond official hours.
This is due to the status specific to this profession: 80% of assistants are employed by individuals. On a daily basis, they say they tinker with their schedule between piling up demands: the fluctuating needs of children, the schedules requested by families, and respect for labor law, because they remain employed. However, the right regarding them remains flexible, to the point that the maximum 48 hours per week can be exceeded if the assistant gives written consent.
Harsh working conditions
Beyond the counted working time, there are four “free” forms of surplus work, invisible and poorly recognized, which assistants must nevertheless produce. First, the renewal of contracts (which regularly end when the child returns to school) and the permanent flexibility of schedules depending on the decisions of families. Furthermore, the latter do not always respect the times at which they drop off or pick up their children.
Added to these constraints are the maintenance of the home, which is the workplace of childminders, and administrative activities, such as taking care of one’s own payroll. “It’s a job where you never stop”describes one of the employees interviewed by sociologists.
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