The Masks of Recognition
The COVID-19 health crisis has put the registers of recognition at work in tension by (re)questioning its different aspects (symbolic, material or regulatory) and their articulation. This article proposes to put into perspective the issues relating to the continuity of activity in times of pandemic for a socially devalued professional category and the process of formalising situations giving rise to recognition as an occupational disease. On the basis of several qualitative studies, one of which was conducted longitudinally, it shows how these different issues were crystallised among workers in the commercial home care aides. The shortage of protective equipment at the beginning of the crisis, in particular masks, accentuated the problems that arose in terms of organising the prevention of work-related illnesses. At the same time, the martial register, which was widely deployed politically, raised questions about the recognition of “soldiers” and the institutional frameworks through which it would be formalised. The demands in this respect differed according to the actors considered, some of them taking up the criticisms that had long been levelled at the system of recognition of work-related illnesses.