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Who pays the worker?

He or she is paid by their employer, in other words the EA, which is also their legal employer. The EA charges the workers payments to the members which utilise the shared worker.

Are the wage costs higher because of the expenses linked to the management of the EA?

Everything depends on the EA’s management modalities. In small EAs the members either share this management or outsource it to an administrator. The labour costs are thus equivalent to that of another worker. In larger EAs the members can decide to make use of a manager. This post is paid for by the members who subsequently charge the EA the hours devoted to this management. Another solution: the hiring of a manager by the EA. The wage costs should thus be shared by the members. The Liège Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which manages the Job’Ardent EA, demands a flat annual fee from the members of the EA.

In every case an EA’s labour costs are lower than those of a temporary employee.

What happens if, in the business companies, there is no more work for an EA’s employee?

Once again, everything depends on the practical details of the EA’s management structure. If there are many members it will probably be easy to find another user to fill in for the withdrawal of a member. Belgian legislation obliges the EAs to hire on a full time basis, so if a new replacement user is not found straight away, the remaining users will have to temporarily increase their use of the shared worker and thus their contribution to the labour costs. If all the users of the same worker experience difficulties at the same time then it might be necessary to sack the worker. But in general we can consider that an EA worker has increased job security, as the risks are spread over several employers instead of just a single one.

For the workers is it a question of temporary work within each business company or indefinite part time contracts for several companies at the same time?

It is more a case of indefinite part time contracts in several user companies. But depending on the type of need the modalities change. Thus for example, in Brussels the JobIris EA employs workers for six months at Viangros (Spring and Summer) and for six months at Leonidas (Autumn and Winter). In the Job’Ardent EA, in Liège, a computer graphics designer goes to one user on Monday and Tuesday, to another on Wednesday, to a third on Thursday and a different one on Friday. Nevertheless every type of formula is possible, according to the needs and the agreements signed between the co-employers.

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