Nonetheless, before jumping into such an adventure it is as well for the different actors concerned to fully appreciate the new issues which the EAs give rise to. Such as, for example, the problematics of social regulation. ‘The unions often don’t understand the EAs well and/or liken them, wrongly, to interim employment, which as we know sparks many fears amongst them,’ stresses Virginie Xhauflair. In addition, for the unions, the dispersal of personnel amongst several companies does not favour the defence of collective interests and that could constitute a prohibitive argument against EAs. Nonetheless, in France a measure has enabled this problem to be snuffed out: so as not to harm the calculations which determine the threshold of union representation, in the EAs all the employers’ working time is tallied and taken into account.

But, beyond this measure, enacted to reassure the unions, ‘is it really necessary to try to have this new type of employment fit into existing institutional cases?’ wonders the anthropologist. She instead suggests that we see in the EAs the opportunity for the renewal of social dialogue, whose forms are still to be constructed at a local, regional and territorial level, in bringing together all the actors and partners likely to participate in EAs, from SMEs to sports associations, from social actors to the local authorities.

A new game for 3

Amongst the other new issues born together with the EAs, certain impact on the domain of Human Resources. Thus the fact of establishing an employment relationship between three parties (the worker, the user and the legal employer) obviously brings to an end traditional bilateral relationships. In parallel with the creation of a third party employer, the prerogatives of managing the employment relationship and that of work management can nevertheless remain hazy and can be variously divided amongst the companies. In theory, the employment relationship is managed by the pool or the EA and that of work is taken care of by the user. But a thinning down of employers’ responsibilities can arise from such a situation, and that risks leading to feelings of insecurity amongst the employees. The fact that ‘all the employers jointly shoulder part of the employer responsibility should nevertheless limit this pitfall,’ claims Virginie Xhauflair.

In addition the emergence of different EAs has enabled people to realise that pooling involved very specific skills for the workers: versatility, flexibility, adaptability, autonomy of travel, etc.  Thus, at the recruitment stage behavioural skills could take precedence over technical knowledge. In fact the EAs are not a solution for all the workers and it is true that not all of them wish to try the experience. But, apart from that, ‘our legislation makes provision  for designing EAs to bring the long term unemployed back to work. Yet this type of employment does not necessarily suit them. Having to be shared between two or three employers can be difficult for every worker and for those workers in particular,’ observes Virginie Xhauflair.