Outplacement

Outplacement

The lending of employees to another company, secondment, is often designed through a secondment agency.

The secondment agency often employs staff which it lends to a client for a fee. The secondment office is therefore the formal employer of the employee to be seconded. In practice, however, the client behaves like the employer, in the sense that the client gives the instructions to the employee. This creates a triangular relationship between employee, secondment agency and client. The employment law aspects in this relationship are more legally complicated than in an ordinary employer-employee relationship.
For example, the secondment office runs the employer’s risk of illness (including payment of wages) and dismissal (paying a severance payment). The question of who is liable in the event of an industrial accident is also more complicated. Furthermore, there may be the applicability of a collective agreement that further colours legal relationships.

We are happy to assist secondment agencies and employers who would like to be advised and supervised in the context of a proposed secondment. We can also provide the contracts for a secondment.