Outsourcing vs temporary employment agency: what is the difference?

Who is the employer and who directs the work?

In temporary work, the worker's employer is the agency, but the work is directed by your company. According to the biznes.gov.pl portal, the agency employs the temporary worker under a fixed-term employment contract or a civil-law contract and assigns them to perform tasks, while the user employer assigns the tasks and checks how they are carried out. The agency is responsible for employment and payment of wages, and the user employer organises the work, sets the hours and supervises the performance of duties.

In workforce outsourcing, the arrangement is different. The District Labour Inspectorate in Olsztyn (Okręgowy Inspektorat Pracy w Olsztynie) cites the position of the Supreme Court: a feature of workforce outsourcing is the absence of direct and permanent subordination of the persons performing the work to the principal, who may exercise only indirect and short-term authority over them. In practice this means the team is directed by the contractor: it has its own coordinators and allocates the tasks itself.

What is the agency responsible for, and what is the outsourcing contractor responsible for?

With temporary work, the agency supplies employed people, and your company organises and supervises the work. The result therefore depends largely on how you plan the posts, shifts and supervision.

With outsourcing, the contractor is responsible for the result of the process, for example order picking, packing or production support. This is the core of the organisational difference: you buy an agreed result and continuity, not just a headcount. The scope, quality measures and settlement rules are set in the contract, so it is the contract that decides exactly what the contractor is responsible for.

Does the 18-month limit within 36 months apply?

For temporary work the limit applies: the user employer may use the work of the same temporary worker for a total of 18 months in a period covering 36 consecutive months. This follows from art. 20 of the Act on the employment of temporary workers.

Outsourcing is not regulated by the Act on the employment of temporary workers, so its limit does not cover it. However, the District Labour Inspectorate in Olsztyn points out that outsourcing used instead of temporary work deprives people of the protection that this act provides. What counts is the real nature of the cooperation, as discussed in the next section.

What is sham outsourcing and why is it a risk?

Sham outsourcing is a situation in which the contract is called a service, but in reality the contractor sends people to work for you. The Labour Inspectorate in Olsztyn indicates that when the actual use of services takes the form of assigning people to work, it may mean providing temporary work without an entry in the National Register of Employment Agencies (KRAZ, Krajowy Rejestr Agencji Zatrudnienia).

For the principal, the conclusion is this: if you give instructions to the contractor's people yourself and organise their workstations, the cooperation may be treated as temporary work, not outsourcing. Then all the rules of temporary work apply, including the 18-month limit within 36 months and equal treatment, and the people should be assigned by a temporary employment agency entered in the register.

When to choose temporary work and when outsourcing?

Choose temporary work when you want to direct the team yourself and need extra hands for an order peak or a replacement. Choose outsourcing when you want to hand over the whole process together with coordination and supervision, and to hold the contractor accountable for quality and continuity.

Back2Work is an employment agency entered in the KRAZ register under number 31286 and offers both solutions. We begin choosing the right form with an analysis of your needs: who is to direct the work and what result you want to buy.

Frequently asked questions