Choosing the right company

1. Wage Portage Employment Professional Association (PEPS) membership

Today, PEPS is the trade association representing wage portage companies. It represents more than 80% of the market, and acts as an interface for employee unions and public authorities. PEPS member companies are regularly audited for their compliance with legal requirements. Several commissions also audit the good practices of PEPS members.

2. Financial risk

By law, all wage portage companies must have a wage payment guarantee to ensure that consultants are paid their net wages in the event of financial difficulties. This guarantee supplements the salary guarantee. This guarantee can be insured or bonded.

ITG chose a surety bond because this is a long-term system that cannot be called into question in the same way that insurance can. We have secured a wage guarantee deposit of €5,100,000.

It is also important to know about the portage company’s cash flow. Their cash flow must be overwhelmingly positive. Some consultants leave money in their account with the portage company, which must be able to release this money at any time.

ITG has an average cash flow of over €30M.

3. Legal risks

The specific risks associated with non-compliance with the law and the provisions specific to portage are as follows:

The nature of the supervisory relationship

The employment contract between the portage company and the ported employee derives its legitimacy from the nature of the supervisory relationship. To establish this relationship and to avoid any risk of reclassification for the client, the portage company must be defined as « an organized business, » as specified in case law.

In other words, it must be a company where ported employees are accountable and comply with guidelines specified in a precise employment contract and internal regulations. They must also be able to receive practical support and training.

This organized structure is even more evident if the company has staff representation bodies (a works council, staff delegates, or at least a sole personnel delegation (DUP)), as is the case with ITG.

4. The employment contract

A permanent employment contract is certainly the most secure form of employment. This is also the approach favored by our corporate partners. At ITG, 75% of our consultants work under permanent contracts, which also limits the risk of reclassification.

5. Reputation risk

For companies who value their reputations, contracting with suppliers who violate these regulations is a risk that they cannot afford to take.

Suppliers who serve companies with national or international audiences must live up to their clients’ reputations. The best way is to take an interest in the company’s past, its place in the history of the profession, and its image in the eyes of the public it serves – in this case, the consultants and clients.

Each company consulted must be able to provide evidence of its reputation through a track record that includes verifiable facts, testimonials and other references.

ITG has been doing business for 21 years, and has always been actively involved in building up and defending the wage portage profession. Having helped to found the first trade association for wage portage companies, ITG’s management teams have always held positions of responsibility in various employers’ or joint associations, such as the PEPS and the OPPS (the Joint Research Panel on Wage Portage).

In summary: the essential guarantees to look for when choosing a wage portage company

Choosing a wage portage company :

• The company has properly declared itself as a wage portage company to the French Labor Inspectorate (Decree no. 2015-1886 of 12/30/15).
• The company carries out wage portage on an exclusive basis (Art. L124-24).
• The company has taken out a financial guarantee to guarantee the payment of experts and the payment of social security contributions (Art. L1254-26).
• The company is a member of the PEPS, a trade association for portage companies, which provides a moral and ethical guarantee for the profession.
• The salaries it establishes for its service providers are high enough to comply with the law (the minimum remuneration for a ported consultant is 70% of the social security ceiling, i.e. €2,318 gross in 2018, in full-time equivalent).
• The company has set up its employee representative bodies (IRPs).
• The company complies with the legal obligation to provide support for ported employees, and offers a dedicated contact person and management tools so that ported consultants can monitor their activities in real-time, and provides training to help them develop.
• The company has a corporate relations manager. Managing B2C customers, which is typical of wage portage companies, is very different from managing B2B customers.