Temporary farmworkers at the center of agricultural workforce. An analysis of labor segmentation in French agriculture

Abstract

Existing literature suggests that temporary wageworkers with diverse profiles and employment statuses are increasingly recruited in European and North American agriculture. We examine the resulting segmentation of the agricultural labor market in France and its specific national characteristics using a framework that mobilizes tools from several institutional labor and agricultural social science approaches. Our mixed methodology articulates data from social security databases and a field case study. Our results highlight the growing proportion of agricultural work performed by individuals in various temporary and/or subcontracted employment statuses between 2003 and 2016. In 2016, most agricultural workers were temporary farmworkers, who accounted for 22 % of the sector's total labor input. The profile of these workers is diversifying to include more foreign nationals and older French farmworkers. However, most are paid low wages regardless of contract length or skill level. Temporary farmworkers are characterized by either a lack of alternatives on the labor market, or access to other social security schemes despite their temporary agricultural employment status. This situation led to competition among farmworkers for jobs, reducing their agency in improving their employment conditions. These characteristics confirm the emergence of a national labor market segmentation, in which workers are divided based on their personal characteristics (residency status, access to social security), as well as the types of contracts and externalization modalities under which they are employed. The increasing dependence on temporary farmworkers in poor working conditions raises questions about the productivity, stability, and policies of French agriculture.