Definition and classification
Arbeitnehmerüberlassung (staff leasing) is the commercial leasing of employees by a temporary work agency to a hirer, where the employees are integrated into the hirer's operation and subject to the hirer's instructions. Colloquially it is called Staff leasing or agency work.
What characterizes it is the triangular relationship: the agency is the employer in law and pays wages and contributions, the hirer has the authority to instruct during the assignment, and the temporary worker works at the hirer but stays employed by the agency.
What duties do the agency and the hirer have?
The agency carries the employment risk even between assignments, needs the Staff leasing license and has to designate the leasing expressly as such in the contract. The hirer has to observe the maximum assignment period and Equal Pay and is liable on a secondary basis through Secondary liability for social security contributions that go unpaid.
How does staff leasing differ from a Werkvertrag?
Unlike a statement of work , the agency does not owe a result but provides labor – the direction lies with the hirer. If an assignment declared as a Werkvertrag is in fact run like leasing, that is concealed staff leasing .