[*]“I worked seven days a week, sometimes until 8 p.m. I had to do more and more. After graduating, Isaure dreamed of going back to her roots to immerse herself in a new culture. She is seduced by a tempting offer of wwoofing at a sled dog farm. Heading to Swedish Lapland in November 2020. She lived in torment for two months.
[*]Wwoofing originated from a desire to promote green tourism. The principle: work on farms for free in exchange for board and lodging, for a holiday at a lower cost. The World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms Association was founded in the UK in the 1970s and reluctantly gave its name to “wwoofing”. The concept arrived in France in 2007 and now has more than 23,000 members, guests and visitors alike.
[*]While Wwoof France operates a rigorous control of offers, other platforms, much more obscurely, use the positive connotation of the term “wwoofing” to run a profitable business. A nonchalance that opens the door to all excesses.
“The owner behaved like a guru”
[*]It is that the concept of wwofing succeeds. The platforms Workaway and HelpX understood this well. In these places beautiful landscapes and the faces of hospitable hosts. Isaure, Fany, Julie, Estelle and Anna [*] : Everyone was seduced by these alternative holidays. These farm stays seemed more responsible and added real meaning to their journey. An ideal of cultural and ecological sharing. At least on paper.
[*]In 2019, Fany, in her mid-twenties, was seduced by an ad on Workaway into working in an ecological lodge and yoga center in the Costa Rican jungle: welcoming clients, cooking, gardening… The young woman was quickly disillusioned: “He does that There were hardly any customers, but about ten volunteers, mostly girls between 20 and 30 years old. Mak, the lodge’s American builder, hosted “Radical Honesty” ceremonies there, a United States-born community that advocates “radical honesty.”
[*]“Mak gathered us on the yoga deck and asked us to express all our feelings, he encouraged the girls to cry and speak their minds about others. It felt like an unhealthy remake of Yes Man, where he tried to convince us of his ‘therapy’, he acted a bit like a guru,” laments the young woman.
Example of hosts offered worldwide on the Workaway platform. Screenshot Workaway
[*]Fany and her friend’s experience is not unique. On a honey farm in Brittany, where there was neither honey nor bees, Julie witnessed a sexual play between three other people against her will. Estelle, you, in the midst of a broken Irish family, in the midst of a crisis…
[*]Upon returning home, everyone wanted to point out these unfriendly hosts. However, it’s difficult to denounce anything when you’ve been a “volunteer” without a permanent contract. Cécile Paturel, coordinator at Wwoof France, denounces these companies that abuse the concept: “Workaway and Company, it’s just greenwashing, they offer to go to India with touching photos and volunteer, it’s a deal with crying children. »
The Labor Code, absent from the holidays
[*]Unfulfilled holiday promises in the sun. In Martinique, Anna worked more than eight hours a day in the heat. The right to work? Not existent. In France, the legislation on the subject is not respected for the simple reason that wwoofing has no legal status. Luc Kirkyacharian, Montpellier labor lawyer for 40 years, clarifies on this point: “The Labor Code says nothing on this subject because it is not an employment contract. To justify the existence of wwoofing, other pages must be turned: that of the Civil Code.
[*]These green holidays are then justified by the concept of barter. But where are the limits of this concept of exchange? Isaure, who went to a sled dog farm in Finland, tested them: “The boss texted me day and night to tell me what to do. However, Workaway defines the exchange as “a few hours of help offered in exchange for board and lodging”.
[*]The platforms could ultimately be defined as simple matchmaking sites. The Montpellier-based lawyer explains: “They deny any responsibility, don’t offer a model agreement, division of labor etc. It’s a bit like dating sites, people choose each other. “The wwoofers then need liability insurance, which is the only form of insurance valid during these working holidays.
“The earth was full of arsenic”
[*]In Finland, Isaure took unforeseen risks: “During certain training runs, the boss, unhealthy, picked up speed, tried to push me off the sled. We could have been seriously injured. »
[*]Fearing for her health, Sarah also had to end her “solidarity experience” earlier than planned. In May 2021 she went on holiday to an eco place called Baffrankou in Limousis in Aude. “I was working in the vegetable garden when the granddaughter of the couple who were hosting me came up to me and told me that the soil was full of arsenic. Which explains why I’ve never seen her work…”, the student now ironizes. For a number of years, many associations have been pointing the finger at the pollution of the soil caused by the old gold mines in the department.
[*]Contacted by Reporterre, the host of Baffrankou denies this: “We are still working in permaculture, research is ongoing but a priori there is no risk. However, the owner admits that after the analysis he found slight traces of arsenic in his children’s urine. While he claims to be “transparent” with volunteers in the Workaway announcement, nothing in the offer’s description warns of soil contamination. Today the other two families who lived in Baffrankou left the premises due to soil infections. The wwoofers keep scrolling.
Wwoofing places offered by the Wwoof platform in France. Screenshot Wwoof France
[*]However, wwoofing remains a laudable concept when the right platforms, here those attached to the original wwoof site, connect the right people. barbara [*] I had a fabulous experience leaving alone on a Scottish farm at 19 via Wwoof Great Britain.
A “mysterious platforms” business
[*]The most serious excesses occur during stays coordinated by the Workaway and HelpX sites. No phone number available. Shell companies with untraceable headquarters. In case of misleading advertising contact person or contact persons.
[*]Fany in Costa Rica experienced many surprises: “Very quickly the host asked us for money: 10 dollars a day. Which was not specified in the announcement, nor when we had exchanged views with him on Skype prior to the trip. “An idyllic setting, but a ‘deal’ and a wwoofing principle that is not kept. Cécile Paturel from Wwoof France emphasizes: “You are a company, we are an association. The aim is to make money and we are non-profit. “Drifts are rare on the French platform and the few issues are settled. Cécile Paturel confirms: “We have a whole system of feedback, from on-site speakers who visit the farms. If we’re wrong about a host, we’ll exclude it. »
On HelpX, these wwoofing ads offer as missions: tending the vegetable garden and the land, felling certain trees, restoring houses… Screenshot HelpX
[*]A dozen wwoofers and hosts are excluded from Wwoof France every year. A sort not powered by Workaway and HelpX. The MSA, the mutual agricultural social association, also wants to prevent their lack of seriousness and strongly supports Wwoof: “The practice of wwoofing must be limited to the purpose of the association Wwoof France. »
[*]Without these controls, nothing could be easier than running an ad on these mysterious platforms. We took the step. A name and email were enough to create a fake profile. With just a few clicks, our “Survey Farm” was a volunteer opportunity like any other on HelpX. Said to be in the heart of Toulouse, the farm aroused no suspicion with photos from Google Images.
[*]However, confronting these sites with their own limitations seems impossible. We contacted HelpX using the only way to reach them: an online form. radio silence. As for Workaway, the platform responded to our interview request with a press release endorsing the merits of their concept. As soon as the lack of control and excesses were mentioned, Workaway stopped responding to our requests.
[*]Our fake farm should therefore now welcome the public. Volunteers, very real, for vacations that don’t exist.
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[*][*] The first names were changed at their request.
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Jul 23, 2022 @ 9:55am
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