Background information

Employer' group ( groupement d'employeurs ) are schemes which allow to share employees between different employers. They were first introduced in France with a law enacted in 1985 (Law No. 85-772). Initially limited to agriculture and micro enterprises, they are now used by employers in all sectors and size categories.

There are two types of employer groups:

• The employer group ( groupement d'employeurs , GE) with economic objectives. These can be agricultural employer groups, single sector or multi sectors' employer groups (other than in agriculture).

• The employer groups for the integration and acquisition of qualifications ( groupement d’employeurs pour l’insertion et la qualification , GEIQ) target vulnerable groups and those having difficulties in accessing the labour market and gaining qualifications. The group imposes conditions on member companies regarding the training provision and qualifications of hired workers.

Content of measure

Several employers (private or public) collectively found an employer group which recruits employees and makes them available to the member companies as needed. Workers are recruited according to the number of hours required by each member company for that position. Member companies must guarantee these hours and cover the payment. In general, each employee works on 2-4 projects every year, either on a seasonal or an ongoing basis. Employees generally benefit from open-ended contracts, though fixed-term contracts can also be used. 

An agreement codifies the fundamental conditions and procedures of temporary staff transfers and the rights of the concerned workers. Contractual relations with the employer remain unchanged, and wages continue to be paid; next to the provision of workers, the employer group might provide other services to the member companies, such as organising training, recruiting, administration of core staff in the member companies.

The scheme has been made more flexible by law on several occasions to allow the development of employer groups.

Use of measure

A study launched by the consultancy firm GESTE for the Ministry of Labour (DGEFP) gives for the first time national statistics: 711 GEs outside the agriculture sector (with at least one employee during the year 2013) were registered in 2013 and employed 15,515 people representing 12,646 Full Time Equivalents. GEs are mainly SMEs, as near to 60% have fewer than 10 shared workers. On average, GEs have 3 full-time employees. GEs with more than 50 employees represent 8% of the registered GEs. A report (2018) issued by the Economic, Social and Environmental Committee (CESE) mentions that 8 out of 10 GEs are to be found in agriculture. Recently, the increase of small-sized GEs in the sports and culture sectors is also reported.

According to DARES (2022), in 2021, 900 non-agricultural employers' groups employed 25,000 people. The majority have fewer than 10 employees, but more than one in ten have 50 or more employees. Half of the jobs are permanent and more than half are covered by ten collective agreements, particularly in the sports sector. Employees of employers' groups are more likely to be manual workers than in the non-agricultural private sector, and less likely to be managers.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment Workers in non-standard forms of employment	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Local / regional government	Employer Local funds National funds Regional funds Other

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 12 August 2000: Centre de Ressources sur les Groupement d’ Employeurs (www.crge.com)
• 01 July 2012: Bruggeman, F., de Lavergne, F. (2010), European Restructuring Toolbox, European Commission (orbi.uliege.be)
• 12 March 2015: Eurofound (2015), New forms of employment - Employee sharing, France, Case study 11: Groupement d’employeurs Île de Noirmoutier–Île d’Yeu, (www.eurofound.europa.eu)
• 21 April 2016: DGEFP /GESTE (2016), Les groupements d'employeurs, acteurs de la (agepla.fr)
• 21 November 2016: Eurofound. New forms of employment: Developing the potential of strategic employee sharing. 2016 (www.eurofound.europa.eu)
• 18 April 2018: Fadeuilhe, P. (2012), ‘Les groupements d’employeurs: responsabilité solidaire et exigences égalitaires’ [Egalitarian and several liability requirements: employer groups], Droit social, No. 10, pp. 899–904. (www.cairn.info)
• 13 November 2018: Lenancker, P. (2018), les groupements d'employeurs, CESE 27 (www.lecese.fr)
• 20 December 2021: Government website on groupements d'employeurs  (travail-emploi.gouv.fr)
• 18 November 2022: Fédération Française des GEIQ (Employer Group for Integration and Qualification) (www.lesgeiq.fr)
• 15 December 2022: DARES (2022), L’emploi des groupements d’employeurs non agricoles en 2021, DARES Focus No59 (syndicat-national-ge.fr)
• 18 November 2024: Syndicat National des Groupements d'Employeurs (SNGE) website (syndicat-national-ge.fr)
• 18 November 2024: Fédération Nationale des Groupements d'Employeurs (FNGE) website (fnge.org)