Work, a blind spot in the Covid-19 crisis - European Trade ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Work has been a paradoxical issue throughout the
Covid-19 crisis. It is one of the main channels of
Europe transmission, so it has played a huge role in the
aggravation of social inequalities during the pandemic.
Yet it has been a blind spot in government strategy.
This may be one of the factors that contributed to
the eventual failure of lockdowns in most European
countries.
Work, a blind spot
in the Covid-19 crisis
Laurent Vogel
ETUI
In Europe, there have been, in broad terms, then downplayed the human-to-human acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003 and
four stages to the authorities’ responses to transmission of the virus. But the upsurge MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome)
the Covid-19 crisis. The first three stages in the epidemic among medical staff in in 2012. In neither case were there more
hold numerous points of comparison with Wuhan left no room for doubt. On 14 Jan- than 1 000 deaths worldwide. If research
the rest of the world. In the current, second uary 2020, the World Health Organization priorities are decided on the basis of return
lockdown phase, it is too early to identify (WHO) was still saying that “preliminary on investment, it would seem ridiculous to
what might be peculiar to Europe and what investigations conducted by the Chinese grant substantial resources to a threat of
might in fact be a taste of future situations authorities have found no clear evidence of this kind. But this argument draws only
elsewhere.1 human-to-human transmission”. In a sharp from the past. The actuarial calculations
about-turn, however, Wuhan was placed in of insurance companies were not the only
quarantine at 8 p.m. on 22 January. The way to assess the risks. The environmental
The first phase: strong denial and experience of this quarantine was perhaps crisis is exposing us to virus reservoirs pre-
“mild flu” most poignantly described by the novelist sent within animals in a much more wides-
Fang Fang in her diary, published under pread and direct way. The industrialisation
It began with denial, perhaps most bru- the title Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a of meat production has created huge lives-
tally on the part of Chinese authorities at Quarantined City. tock units that are particularly vulnerable
the start of the epidemic. The virus first In Europe, the basis of the initial denial to pathogens. Mass use of air transport has
appeared in Wuhan, an industrial con- was different, instead guided to a significant helped increase the risks exponentially. Al-
urbation peopled by millions of workers, extent by a neoliberal vision of public health. though there was no way of knowing when
many of them with a precarious status as This was then exacerbated by the effect of
“internal migrants”, constantly monitored austerity policies and a hierarchy of prio-
by the state and housed in factory dormi- rities in which collective prevention was at
tories. The authorities’ initial response was the bottom. Most of the preparedness plans
to order them to keep quiet and carry on developed after the H1N1 flu pandemic of
working. There was a clampdown on whis- 2009-2010 were abandoned without discus-
tle-blowers such as Li Wenliang, an oph- sion. The most visible manifestation of this
thalmologist in Wuhan’s central hospital, error was the failure to replenish strategic 1. This article was completed
on 1 November 2020. On
who was summoned by police on 3 January stocks of protective masks. The almost com- the basis of the figures
2020 and forced to back down. He contract- plete stoppage of funding for fundamental available at the end of
ed Covid-19 on 10 January and died on 7 research on coronaviruses was part of the October, Europe, together
with the US, is the region of
February 2020. For several crucial weeks, same trend. This research had first taken the world worst hit by the
the Chinese authorities first denied and off after the pandemics of SARS (severe second wave of Covid-19.
4 HesaMag 22 . Autumn 2020
and where SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that the evidence, that “Our businesses have
Never in the history of causes Covid-19) would appear, the alarm not been affected, and they will carry on as
had already been raised by various research ever.” Throughout March, the employers’
humanity have such bodies on the inevitability of far more ag- hashtag, #yeswework, banged the drum on
demanding public gressive infectious pandemics emerging in this issue. It took massive strikes to get the
the future. The public health system, for its Italian government to finally close down
health measures been part, is focused on hospitals, and neglects some industrial plants.
introduced anywhere both primary health care and intermediate
levels, such as outpatient treatment. It is be-
within such a short coming common for very elderly people to The first lockdown: back to basics?
space of time. live away from the rest of the community
in care homes increasingly run by private Starting in the second half of March 2020,
groups, despite the evidence from countries lockdown measures were adopted in most
such as Denmark that non-segregated alter- of the European countries that had been
natives improve their quality of life. hardest hit by Covid-19. These measures
When the threat in Europe became un- were justified on the grounds of the very
deniable, the influence of employers was a rapid spread of the virus, the absence of
determining factor in the delays that en- effective treatments or vaccinations, and
sued. Italy is the most telling example. This the rising death toll. But the state of dis-
was the first European country to be exten- repair of public health systems, afflicted
sively affected. The first cases detected were by decades of austerity, also played a role.
two Chinese tourists on 31 January 2020, The health system was at breaking point.
but, from the second half of February, nu- This is the background to the tragedy of the
merous new cases appeared without any mass fatalities in care homes. Throughout
direct link to China. The internal circula- 2019, strikes and demonstrations by care
tion of the virus was particularly evident home staff in France had highlighted the
in the industrial regions of the northeast deterioration of working conditions as well
(Lombardy and Veneto). Employers em- as management methods that were based
barked on a large-scale media campaign to on a kind of industrialisation of care work,
↴ All over the world, avoid any lockdown measures. In Bergamo, which was incompatible with its real pur-
women have been at which was to become the most tragic epi- pose. Staff shortages, intensified and stand-
the forefront of the centre of the pandemic, Confindustria (the ardised work, insecure employment condi-
battle against the
pandemic. Italian employers’ federation) launched a tions, and no workplace democracy: these
Photo: ©Belga video on 28 February insisting, against all deadly ingredients were all already present.
HesaMag 22 . Autumn 2020 5
During lockdown, a double standard Failure of the exit strategy: 2. Under union pressure,
the French Minister of
emerged between health measures in public were young partygoers to blame? Employment allowed the
places and health at work. In public places, inspector to resume work
drastic rules of prevention applied. Never in From mid-May 2020, most governments in on 13 August 2020, but
he was transferred 200
the history of humanity have such deman- Europe opted for a gradual return to nor- kilometres away from his
ding public health measures been introduced mality. Lockdown had produced encourag- home. In a joint complaint
anywhere within such a short space of time. ing results. The virus reproduction rate (Ro) filed with the International
Labour Organization,
As far as work was concerned, essential ac- had dropped below one. Hospitalisations the French unions raised
tivities were maintained, including in situa- and deaths had fallen very substantially. around 30 cases of
tions where prevention was inadequate. In At the end of May 2020, the prevailing im- pressure brought to bear on
labour inspectors by their
Europe, the downplaying of workplace risks pression was that Europe was coming out of line management.
first came to light in the protective mask the most critical phase, even though some 3. In Mexico, the third most
crisis. Rather than acknowledging their res- members of the scientific community were highly populated country
in the Americas, President
ponsibility for the failure to replenish the warning against over-optimism. At that Andrés Manuel López
strategic stocks built up in 2009-2010, for time, it was mainly on the American conti- Obrador’s position on
weeks most governments went on insisting nents that the pandemic was rife. This was the pandemic was not as
unequivocal as that of
that wearing masks was pointless or even partly exacerbated by political factors. The Trump or Bolsonaro. He
counterproductive in most situations. On 2 presidents of the continents’ two most high- did, however, grant priority
April 2020, Anthony Smith, a labour inspec- ly populated countries (the US and Brazil) to the continuation of
economic activity, to the
tor in France, was dismissed by his line ma- were holding on to attitudes of denial that detriment of public health
nagement for trying to have masks delivered were far more radical and enduring than needs.
to the staff of an association providing home those of their European counterparts.3
care.2 For several weeks, work went on in
hospitals in Denmark, although the inspec-
torate stopped carrying out checks, conside-
ring that this would expose its inspectors to
an excessive risk.
The definition of what constituted es- There is a striking contrast
sential activities was a divisive issue. No one between the trends in scientific
questioned the need to keep the health sector
or food production going. But governments data and the inadequacy of
adopted criteria that were too broad, to keep prevention at the workplace.
industrial sectors such as aircraft manufac-
ture operating or to allow e-commerce giants
like Amazon to carry on their activities.
Where it was possible, teleworking be- More than anything, it was the existence pandemic was continuing at a relatively low
came mandatory or strongly recommended, of very marked social inequalities that ma- level or seemed to have been contained.
depending on the country. Teleworking is gnified the impact of the illness. In Latin In Europe, although the spread of the
an effective factor in protecting against the America, for tens of millions of impoveri- virus had slowed down, the pandemic was
spread of the virus. But it does have another shed workers in the informal sector, going still very much present and spreading geogra-
side: the major inequalities arising from the into lockdown meant they could not afford phically, with outbreaks in the Balkans, cen-
possibilities of adapting practical activities to eat. The few specific welfare mecha- tral Europe and Portugal, where its impact
to this mode of operation; housing condi- nisms introduced were insufficient. In the had been low during the preceding period.
tions and access to both suitable equipment US, the shortcomings of the social security All through the summer, the part played
and high-quality connections; and diffi- system left many workers without pay if by working and employment conditions
culties when paid work and unpaid family they took time off sick. This made it diffi- cropped up again and again. But these alarm
work overlap. This last factor weighed par- cult to place people in quarantine as soon signals were consistently ignored. Govern-
ticularly heavily on women. The closure of as the first symptoms appeared. The more ment policies tended to look elsewhere:
schools and the suspension of many ser- substantial influence of social inequalities towards partygoers and the admittedly an-
vices for disabled, sick and elderly people may help to explain the contrast between tisocial behaviour of a great many people
seriously worsened women’s double wor- Europe and America. In Europe, lockdown wanting to relieve the anxieties of the period
king day. Psychological strain and the “re- brought about a very marked drop in mor- just passed. Hard data on infections seemed
turn” of large numbers of men to the home tality within a few weeks. On the other side now to be framed by a moralising narrative.
full-time contributed to an exacerbation of of the Atlantic, it fell more slowly. The US, Recreational activities were seen as hotbeds
domestic violence. where there was a strong fall in mortality of infection, demonstrating the immaturity
There were two options in the case of from the end of April to mid-June, was out of many young people, while workplaces
non-essential activities where teleworking of sync with the rest of the Americas, where faded into the background. But infections at
was impossible: temporary lay-offs with the death toll continued to rise until Au- work remained at a high level in all sectors
specific social security support, or the conti- gust. The situation in Asia and Africa was involving public-facing roles. This is clear-
nuation of certain non-essential activities not uniform: there were particularly criti- ly the case for healthcare but also for social
subject to compliance with hygiene rules cal zones (India, the Middle East and South services, prisons, the police, public trans-
(often reduced to social distancing alone). Africa) and then there were areas where the port, and so on. From September 2020,
6 HesaMag 22 . Autumn 2020Breakdown of the human toll of the pandemic posing few problems, whereas the day-to-
Daily deaths from Covid-19 by country/region: 21-day moving average day experience of work, as it really was, gave
SOURCE — Adapted from Johns Hopkins University data. the lie to these optimistic claims. Moreover,
people were rightly being asked to be cau-
tious in the rest of their daily lives, from
festive occasions to interpersonal contacts.
If rules were rarely adhered to at work,
why would they be in other activities? This
question raises a more fundamental issue
which cuts across all the phases of the pan-
demic: a highly authoritarian approach to
prevention.
Partial return to lockdown
From the start of October 2020, there was
no longer any doubt about the reality of a
second wave in Europe. This was attested
by a rise in hospital admissions, and then
deaths, in Spain from August onwards. The
September
November
February
second wave spread over larger areas than
October
August
March
those which had been seriously affected by
April
June
May
July
the first wave. The spectre of the collapse
of hospital services loomed again with the
added concern that the damage arising
Brazil The rest of Latin America Mexico The rest of North America US from inadequate treatment of other disor-
Europe India The rest of Asia Middle East Africa ders had been recognised. Most European
governments resigned themselves to new
On 12 November 2020, Europe recorded 2 790 deaths caused by Covid-19,
lockdown measures. As far as work is con-
compared to 162 on 1 August and 3 781 on 17 April.
cerned, this time everything appears to
have been reduced to a dichotomy between
activities that can be performed remotely
and those that require a human presence.
When activities have been suspended, the
education was also added to this list. And practice, when it came to prevention prac- rationale for these measures is not the pro-
the proliferation of virus clusters in other tices within companies, these risks were ra- tection of workers as such, but the limita-
sectors came down to the interaction of in- rely taken into consideration. tion of contact with the public (closure of
fection with poor working conditions and If we look at the mortality curve in Eu- non-essential retail outlets, gyms and cul-
precarious forms of employment. In Poland rope,5 this peaked around the middle of tural locations, partial recourse to distance
and Czechia, work in the mines was at the April 2020. It then dropped sharply, only to learning, etc.). If the transition to telework-
source of major local or regional clusters. climb again gradually from the second half ing in March took place in a rush, without
All over the world, abattoirs were flagged of August, before going out of control in Oc- proper provision in law or coverage by col-
as breeding grounds of the disease. And tober. During the last week of October, the lective bargaining, the situation was hardly
agricultural seasonal labour, which is cha- milestone of 1 000 deaths a day was passed better six months later.
racterised by the extreme precariousness of again, despite a significant improvement in
its working, living and transport conditions, the treatment of severe cases.
was also at the origin of many local clusters. 4 The desire to resume economic activity
4. Before the borders within
The refusal to regularise undocumented at any cost was not accompanied by the the European Union were
workers unconditionally in Europe played a technical and human resources needed to opened, derogations were
role in the spread of infection in this sector, track and trace the contacts of people dia- granted so that large
numbers of agricultural
as it did for domestic workers. gnosed as positive. Many policymakers seasonal workers could be
There is a striking contrast between the communicated the illusion that downloa- brought in, in particular
trends in scientific data and the inadequacy dable computer applications could replace from Romania.
5. Data of variable quality on
of prevention at the workplace. From Fe- painstaking human work of observation reported deaths attributed
bruary onwards, studies raised the alarm and investigation – work that would also to Covid-19 are available.
about the persistence of the virus on sur- have been an opportunity for discussions Using overall excess
mortality rates recorded
faces. Airborne transmission had also been about the precise circumstances of infection in 2020 compared with
affirmed by various studies as early as April. at work, at home or on transport, etc. previous years, the analysis
On 6 July 2020, 239 scientists issued an ur- Prevention compliance suffered as a can be refined, and better
account can be taken of the
gent appeal to the WHO asking it to take ac- result of the proliferation of conflicting si- limitations of the recording
count of this risk in its recommendations. In gnals. Work was generally presented as of deaths from Covid-19.
HesaMag 22 . Autumn 2020 7↳ It is becoming
common for very
elderly people to live
away from the rest of
the community in care
homes, increasingly
run by private groups.
Photo: ©Belga
A common blind spot while others would require major changes Two diametrically opposed
to the organisation of work, productivity perspectives
The public health policies adopted have standards and the room for manoeuvre that
been focused on barriers: distance between workers have in their activities. There are two sides to the opposition
people, mask-wearing, disinfection. And Statistical mechanisms play a major role movements that have emerged. One is
more often than not, they have been dic- in managing the pandemic. As much as they reactionary and based on conspiracy the-
tated by the authorities. The allocation of describe reality, they also construct it. Data ories. This involves a mixture of racism
roles between policymakers and experts gathering has been modelled by the WHO. It (against Asian communities, particularly
has rarely been transparent and has often covers individual data (sex, age, place of re- during the early weeks of the pandem-
been contentious. One of the basic lessons sidence, comorbidity factors,6 admission to ic), the claim to individual freedom as
learned from the battle with AIDS has hospital, death – if applicable – etc.) and does an absolute right, macho glorification of
been swept aside, giving way to a strong not include any data on the occupations of risk-taking, a cult of gross domestic prod-
comeback of a hygiene-based approach the people affected or other socio-economic uct (according to the academic version of
that is highly averse to accepting non-ex- indicators. It is as though it was a question this discourse, a drop in GDP would cause
pert knowledge from the people affected. of managing a socially undifferentiated more deaths than Covid-19) and an in-
In most of the groups of experts advising mass of individuals who might transmit the stinctive distrust of expert scientific opin-
decision-making bodies, there is minimal virus from one person to another. Data on ion. The political parties on the extreme
representation of the social sciences. the occupational dimension have emerged right have generally not managed to har-
From this viewpoint, work is reduced to only gradually, and very unequally from one ness these responses, except possibly in
a place where individuals congregate, like a country to another, sometimes in combina- Spain, where Vox, bolstered by its regional
religious ceremony or a sports activity. In tion with other factors relating to social ine- alliances with the classic right-wing, has
the case of Covid-19, transmission through qualities in health.7 played a more active role than the Italian
the respiratory route necessarily implies In our view, there is a close link between Lega or the French Rassemblement na-
that work must be regarded as a major these limits and the political will to avoid tional. This opposition feeds on justified
channel for the spread of the virus. It is an placing the issue of social inequalities at criticisms of the inadequacy of welfare
intrinsically collective activity involving the centre of prevention measures against mechanisms (particularly in Italy) and the
multiple interactions between people and Covid-19. Linking prevention with the spe- authoritarian approach to crisis manage-
materials. It is not enough simply to bolt on cific nature of work means interfering with ment. It does not offer any alternative for
hygiene rules designed to establish barriers the power balance between workers and society. It is an aggressive call for a return
within spaces. Some rules are unworkable, employers within companies. to the old order.
8 HesaMag 22 . Autumn 2020The other opposition has come from the
world of work. It is potentially radical. All
over the world, women have been at the fo-
refront of the battle against the pandemic,
in hospitals, care homes and supermarkets.
They have often had to fall back on their
own devices in disastrous prevention condi-
tions and they have helped others to sur- The statistical data do not include
vive, often at the cost of their own health.
Some people, declaring them to be heroines, any data on the occupations
have tried to masculinise this situation. But, of the people affected or other
in reality, the resilience of medical staff is
based on prior struggles that forged collec- socio-economic indicators.
tive identities.
The hygiene-based vision adopted by the
authorities is constantly at odds with the
requirements of work in the real world and
employers’ demands to keep productivity
up. An analysis of the clusters that emerged
after lockdown was lifted shows that, in the Renault plant in Sandouville and in va-
certain activities, the protection offered by rious Amazon logistics centres. In Belgium,
simple hygiene barriers is illusory. In other meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of
activities, work has to be done differently. bus and tram drivers of the Brussels public
Teaching, acting or driving a bus while kee- transport company (STIB) exercised their
ping to the personal protective measures right to stop work in May. Management had
often involves unsustainable situations and challenged the need for some prevention
destabilises professional identities. To a measures in preparation for the increase
large extent, it is work itself that is feeding in passenger numbers when lockdown was
a huge potential for resistance. lifted. Other collective struggles also deve-
This has been demonstrated intermit- loped, in particular among agricultural la-
tently and unequally from one country to bourers in Italy on the regularisation of un-
another. It first appeared on 1 March 2020, documented workers. The common factor in
at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, where staff these movements is the concern to ensure
exercising their collective right to stop work that occupational health requirements do-
on the grounds that their lives were in dan- vetail with the needs of public health.
ger led to the introduction of a minimum As events unfold in the next few months,
level of preventive measures. In northern democracy in the workplace could occupy
Italy, numerous strikes broke out in March, a special place in the surrounding debates
bringing some factories to a standstill, while – but this still remains a challenge rather
a desperate revolt took hold in some prisons. than a certainty. In the real world, work
Some weeks later, there were new conflicts cannot be reduced to a simple space where
in France about determining what is, and is hygiene barriers can be blindly applied. To
not, “essential” from the workers’ viewpoint. acknowledge this is to allow groups of wor-
Sometimes, judicial decisions garnered pu- kers to take control over the conditions of
blicity for these struggles, as in the case of production, draw on their experience, and
reshape work in all of its aspects, taking
account of both the health imperatives and
the actual benefit that their work represents
for society. Beyond Covid-19, this is about
the essence of democracy: giving people the
right to discuss and decide how to carry out
6. The role of working
conditions in certain their work on a day-to-day basis. ●
comorbidity factors,
such as pulmonary
disease, has not been
systematically researched
to date. However, it is an
important potential factor
of inequality in relation to
deaths.
7. The European Trade Union
Institute will shortly be
publishing a report on the
available data on Covid-19
as an occupational risk.
HesaMag 22 . Autumn 2020 9You can also read
