Audiotel and clairvoyance services: exploitation of clairvoyants

Many of you have expressed to us your surprise that the INAD does not provide any information on the working conditions of clairvoyance practitioners who carry out their activity on behalf of certain employers who own audiotel services. Indeed, certain audiotels specializing in telephone clairvoyance, based in France or abroad, employ qualified or unqualified clairvoyance practitioners, for an hourly rate of €4.50, per hour generated, that is to say one actual hour of work. It being specified that hours not worked receive no remuneration. These practitioners, considered to be independent workers, do not benefit from the social security coverage of employees and receive remuneration well below the hourly minimum wage which has been set, since July 1, 2007, at €8.44 per hour. Consequently, this qualification of “self-employed worker” is artificial but allows business-oriented and abusive employers not to apply the labor legislation in force.

In addition, these exploited practitioners, on the recommendations of some of their employers, try to convince, for a substantial percentage, the potential clientele in turn to accept occult work for non-existent emotional rapprochement work, imaginary relief or ‘‘virtual’’ protection to supplement their income.

These facts and actions constitute a real deception, a large-scale fraud. Of course, the INAD denounces all of these harmful practices both to consumers and to the entire divinatory arts profession.

It is clearly specified that these exploited professionals have the possibility of seizing the competent court which is the Labor Court to reclassify their professional relations with their employers into an employment contract with all the consequences which are attached to this qualification both in terms of social coverage and the method of remuneration for the hours actually worked or not, during which they remained at the disposal of the employer.

Furthermore, the payment conditions are far from being clear and respected since many of them complain of not being paid on time or even contest their services and are refused any payment.