Poland is a country that has had a long history of labour immigration to France. It has created an impressive diaspora in France. A large number of people of Polish origin are working in France and they contribute greatly to the culture of this great country.

When Agence interim Pologne emigrated to France in the 1920s and 30s, it did not do so as a group of huddled migrants stranded at Toul or in the back of a train. Rather, as Janine Ponty has shown in her book, they were recruited by private commercial companies controlled by coal and farm interests. The recruitment was largely outside government control and, because it was private, employers were able to dictate the conditions of employment.

The Price Tag of Interim Expertise: Exploring Rates in Poland

These workers are not always declared by their bosses and they are frequently subject to all sorts of dubious ‘legal’ contracts that can easily be violated. The exploitation of these workers is obvious and it is not surprising that the Polish workers, who make up most of this workforce, are often undocumented.

These practices were also apparent at the shipyards in Saint-Nazaire where Polish companies provided subcontractors for the construction of steamers and hid low wages on their pay slips by employing a rate known as the ‘period of availability’. This vague concept allows the company to reduce the wages by 50percent if it claims that the work on a particular steamer is being held up by another company doing work at the same time.