ABSTRACT
The section of a wrecked Roman barge that was laying ten meters deep in the Rhone River has been lifted without any mishap in spite of a strong wind and the doubts voiced by the crane operator concerning the intervention. In France, the Public Work Divers are recognised as a registered profession since a by-law dated 13 February 2014. As underscored by Gallioz: ‘the hardship of work as a criterion built around the use of physical strength is still a structural component of the gendered identity of the labour force in the building industry. Shortages, together with recycling, bricolage, ‘woolly prescription’ in work organisations, and resorting to ad interim labour go along with constructing precarious subjects. In the case of divers working in public works, it seems that the analysis put forward by Poussin or Jeanjean as regards the sewage workers is being turned upside down.
