Secondment and deployment of employees in Belgium
Secondment and deployment of employees in Belgium
Do you want to second your personnel to Belgium? Or do you employ Belgian staff to be hired out to third parties?
If yes, please note that Belgium enforces very strict regulations in this area compared to its neighbours (including the Netherlands). Belgium even upholds a principle prohibition of deployment of employees (also referred to as temporary assignment of personnel or secondment), with very few exceptions.
What does the prohibition of deployment involve?
- deployment of employees to a third party (the user company)
- that makes use of the services of such employees and
- that exercises all or some of the authority that is normally exercised by the employer of the hired employees.
Deployment or contracting / sub-contracting?
In practice, it is sometimes challenging to determine if a situation concerns contracting / sub-contracting or deployment. In such a situation, it is important to determine who instructs the relevant employees about which issues:
Health and safety on site:
Compliance by a third party of obligations relating to health and safety on site cannot be regarded as exercising full or partial employer authority. This means that a situation does not concern prohibited deployment if a third-party user instructs employees working for another employer in this area.
Other aspects:
For issues that are not related to health and safety on site (i.e. all other cases), the following rules apply:
- The employer and user company must conclude an agreement in writing
- The de facto organisation and completion of the assignment must be fully in accordance with the provisions set out in the agreement
- The instruction options that are transferred to the principal pursuant to the agreement may not have such a scope that these erode employer authority
What could go wrong?
Avoid problems!
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