A large number of temporary workers work in france under a contract referred to as a CDD (contrat de travail temporaire). The contract is concluded between the agency and the worker and lasts the duration of a particular assignment. It entitles the worker to an end-of-contract compensation payment. This study investigates the impact of this payment on employees’ reactions to organisational injustice and their ingroup identification. It finds that higher voluntary workers’ ingroup identification mediates their differences with low-autonomy / low-compensated ones in terms of favouring collective or self-centred responses to injustice. URL https://euworkers.fr/

In a context of growing labour flexibility, the use of short contracts in France has increased since the 1990s, even though open-ended contracts are still the norm. The authors describe the development of a distinctive temporary employment agency sector and regulatory environment under French politico-institutional conditions, despite widespread cultural, political and trade union opposition. They use a variegated capitalism conceptual framework to illustrate the role of large agencies in constructing a market for agency labour, largely contingent upon global developments.

Benefits and Challenges: Temporary Work in France

Florent Lheureux and Clement Parmentier are researchers at the Laboratory of Psychology of the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comte in Dijon. Their research focuses on social identity processes associated with work- and health-related behaviours. Their current projects explore the impact of temporary work on workers’ person-environment fit and the role of social identity processes in shaping their job motivation and reactions to organisational injustice. They are interested in identifying the specific mechanisms that shape these effects.

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