Individual workers assigned to clients by an organization that employs the workers or assumes responsibility as an employer for the length of the assignment. In the US, employees may be ‘leased’ by Professional Employer Organizations (PEO); in the UK they can be provided via umbrella companies; and in France, by portage companies. In the UK some temporary workers are engaged on contracts guaranteeing a level of work and payment between assignments (‘Swedish Derogation’ contracts – see definition) such that they are effectively ‘leased employees,’ and in other countries they may be employed on permanent employment contracts in countries (e.g., Germany) where all agency workers have to be employed by suppliers on a ‘benched’ capacity. (See Staff Leasing)