What is a public service contractor?

Verified 16 February 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

There is no legal definition of a temporary agent. It was the case law that clarified that notion.

Thus, the contractor is a staff member recruited for to perform a specific task, one-off and limited to the performance of specific acts and hourly wage, that is, to the task.

Unlike a contract staff member, the successful tenderer shall not be recruited to meet an ongoing need of the administration. The vacatee is not recruited on a job. He is recruited to perform a specific and ad hoc task.

The contractor therefore does not benefit from the applicable provisions contract staff in the civil service (leave, training, termination pay, etc.).

The contractor shall not receive any index treatment (or of residence allowance, or family treatment supplement - SFT).

However, he is entitled to partial reimbursement of transport costs between home and work.

Please note

A staff member recruited on a non-full-time post shall not be a member of the temporary staff. A non-full-time job is a permanent job.

The successive and uninterrupted renewal of CSD translates a permanent need administration. In this case, the agent is not a vacationer even if the administration so designates.

But the administration can recruit the same contractor several times to perform specific tasks on time. This is the case, for example, of an interpreter who is occasionally recruited by police services to carry out specific translation tasks.

The absence of a written contract is not in itself sufficient to establish that a staff member is a member of the contract staff.

It's the term of employment and the nature of the functions which determine whether a staff member is a member of the contract staff or a temporary staff member.

The qualification of a contractor or contractor shall be carried out by the judge on a case-by-case basis.