Social Agenda Issue 52 - EN

OTHER VOICES What it means to be a qualified worker today Erwan: He has been through it all, from being a temporary agency worker to having an open-ended contract. © European Union A ship building supervisor, Erwan works in the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyards, in Saint-Nazaire, France. In March 2018, Chantiers de l’Atlantique delivered one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, Symphony of the Seas, to the American company Royal Carribean. Muriel Guin, head of a European Social Fund service in the European Commission’s Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Directorate General, had an interview with him last summer. She thought Erwan’s career was quite telling of what it means to be a qualified worker today: vocational education; temporary agency work as a stepping stone to a direct labour contract; restructuring; life-long learning and re-qualification; self-employment and entrepreneurship; sub-contracting, open-ended contracts and posting of workers... Erwan has seen it all! You’ve been working since around 2000 in the Saint-Nazaire shipyards. Can you tell us how you got there and what did you do as your first job? I got an Advanced Technician professional certificate in shipbuilding technics and I was contacted for a job by the Chantiers de l’Atlantique straight after I got my diploma. Did you get a direct contract? I worked a few months as a temporary agency worker and then I got a direct open-ended contract. What were you doing? I started in the customer and maintenance service. We dealt with the vessels’ guarantees. Then you worked on supervising the delivery of ships, right? Yes and I spent five years on the shipbuilding site itself to deal with piping systems and fitting on board. You stayed until 2010 and then that year, the situation of the shipyard was a bit difficult in terms of orders. What did you do? Well I looked for another training, to try something else. So you thought it was time to get out from the shipbuilding yards? Yes indeed because there are always ups and downs in shipbuilding. So I took a training course to become a plumbing and heating specialist, for nine months, with a special training leave. There was a redundancy plan, right? Yes and there was some financial aid for reconversion. So I took advantage of it. And after this re-training, what did you do? I created my own plumbing and heating company. It lasted four years, until 2015. By then, shipbuilding was up again. So I thought it might be time to come back. What steps did you take? I checked whether companies that sub-contract with Chantiers de l’Atlantique were looking for supervisors, which is my profile. And indeed they were. So I started in a sub-contracting company in this area. They took me to supervise some technical areas. And what did you supervise exactly? I supervised pipefitters from foreign companies; they were posted workers. What nationalities were they? They were from Lithuania and Ukraine. So you were an external provider until 2017 and in January 2017, you evolved again. What happened? I was recruited again directly by the shipbuilding yards with an open-ended contract. And what is your job now? I continue supervising posted workers. What nationalities are they this time? They are from Romania and Bulgaria. What is the name of the ship you are building now? Symphony of the Seas. And when will she be delivered? In March 2018. 2 6 / SOC I A L AG E NDA / J U LY 2 0 1 8