Enhancing Job Security for Temporary Workers Without Destabilizing Permanent Contracts? The Negociated Creation of a Permanent Contract for Temporary Workers

The French nationwide collective agreement of January 2013 was supposed to give companies greater flexibility in exchange for enhancing job security. Originally, the agreement was to increase contribution rates for certain fixed-term contracts, hence taxing employment flexibility and potentially making it less attractive for employers. The national federation of temporary agencies managed to annul this measure in return for setting up a permanent contract for temporary workers, designed to reinforce job security for some of them. Current public policy aimed at improving security for mobile workers is based on the idea that permanent contracts are outmoded and that workers' rights should belong to the individual rather than being part of a contract. Nonetheless, the new permanent contract for temporary workers is based on rights that are attached to a contract. This article focuses on how this contract was elaborated, examining first the collective bargaining from which it emerged and then its introduction into labour law. After presenting the positions of the stakeholders involved in the process, the article examines the parameters that can be adjusted in order to deal with switching employers in the context of a permanent work contract for temporary workers.