Definition and classification
The Staff leasing license (also called an AÜG or leasing license) is the official authorization an agency needs under § 1 AÜG in order to lease employees to third parties commercially. It is the basic precondition for being allowed to offer Staff leasing at all.
The license is granted by the Federal Employment Agency, which checks the agency's reliability in the process. The first license is limited to one year and renewed annually; after three uninterrupted years an open-ended license can be applied for.
A logistics company works with ten staffing providers. If one provider's temporary staffing license expires without anyone noticing, the client company risks a deemed employment relationship with the workers leased to it. A daily automatic check catches that before it turns into damage.
Legal framework and consequences
If a company leases out staff without a valid license, the leasing contract and the employment contract are void under §§ 9, 10 AÜG – by operation of law an employment relationship can arise between the temporary worker and the hirer. On top of that come fines and the loss of the license.
How do you check a provider's temporary staffing license?
The Federal Employment Agency keeps a register of licensed agencies, which allows a first check. Continuous monitoring is more reliable: licenses are time-limited and can expire or be revoked – a single check when the contract is signed is not enough. Pactos checks every provider's temporary staffing license automatically and daily, and warns as soon as a license is missing or expiring.