Secondment

How it works

Secondment agreements say who pays, who directs day to day, who carries statutory duties, and when the person returns. In a group of companies this is common. In a U.S. founder plus a random vendor it is rare and often a costume for labor-only contracting. If the ‘home employer’ has no work of its own, you do not have a secondment. You have a supplier.

Example: a PH subsidiary seconds an accountant to the U.S. parent for twelve months. SSS stays with the subsidiary. The parent reimburses cost. That is a secondment. A staffing firm with no other operations ‘seconding’ Ana to you is not.

How it differs

EOR is not a secondment. Dual employment is two employers without a loan structure.

Common errors

Using the word to avoid writing an employment contract in anyone’s name.

In practice

Treat Secondment as a week-one operating object. Name the employer on the contract and the manager in Slack. If those two names cannot both be true at once, the model is theater. Write an owner - founder, local employer, or worker - and a date you will look at it again: first cutoff, first holiday, or first miss. If nobody can show a contract clause, a payslip line, a calendar block, or a checklist box, you do not have secondment yet. You have a conversation. Convert the conversation before the person starts, while changing the deal still costs a paragraph rather than a resignation. Re-read the worked example above against the actual hire in front of you. If the numbers in that example cannot be swapped for this seat’s pesos, hours, and start date, the brief is still unfinished.