Abstract

GABORIAU, Marion. Sociological study of the unfitness for work system in the French civil service: the case of the city of Paris. Laboreal [online]. 2023, vol.19, n.1, e20858.  Epub July 01, 2023. ISSN 1646-5237.  https://doi.org/10.4000/laboreal.20858.

This article presents doctoral research in sociology on the recognition of unfitness for work due to health reasons in France’s local civil service sector. It takes as its case study the Paris City Hall, which recognizes more than 500 workers as unfit for work each year, and directs them towards professional reclassification or retirement for disability. The research is based on a three-year ethnographic survey combining observations of work situations and expertise, interviews with various professionals and workers recognized as unfit for their functions, qualitative analyses of medico-administrative files and statistical processing of databases. The analysis aims to understand the institutional logics (legal, financial and managerial) that underlie the unfitness system, as well as what constructs the judgements of unfitness in actual situations. In particular, the thesis explores various scenarios where expertise played out, characterized by dissymmetrical power relations between doctors and workers and by dealing with information which is a source of misunderstanding and uncertainty. It also brings to light the (re)production of social and gendered inequalities in terms of recognition and taking care of occupational health problems, potentially caused by occupational reasons often ignored.

Keywords : unfitness for work; France’s local civil service sector; subordinate public sector workers; retirement for disability; professional reclassification.

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