Everything you need to know about project and temporary employment

Project and fixed term employment

Today's job market contains several constructions compared to the classic employer-employee construction. It is, among other things, after Covid-19, working from home or a combination of home and office work has become popular, otherwise known as hybrid.

In this connection, you may have become familiar with the terms fixed-term employment, project employment or freelance employment. There are several workplaces that see benefits in hiring a project consultant, contractor or a freelancer for specific tasks. However, there are a number of elements your workplace must be aware of.

In this article, we will therefore explain to you what fixed term employment entails and what characterises project employment. At the end of the article, we will briefly go over what you need to be aware of when hiring foreign workers.

What is fixed term employment?

Fixed term employment implies that the employee's contract has a fixed defined time when the employee resigns from their position at the workplace. The employment relationship is limited in time if it meets one of the three criteria below:

1. The employment ends on a given date
2. The employment ends when the employee has completed a specific work task defined in the contract
3. The employment ends when a certain event occurs. A certain event can be, for example, when an employee on long term sick leave returns

Project employment is thus reminiscent of fixed term employment: employment that ends on a given date or when the consultant has completed a specific work task.

It is crucial in relation to task based and event based hiring that the employee's contract clearly highlights when the work task has been completed, or which event must occur before the employee has their last working day in the organisation.

In addition, your workplace must be aware of which rules apply in relation to the extension of fixed term and project based employment. An employee who is employed in a teaching and research company at state owned and self owned institutions, which is primarily financed by grants from the state, can extend the limited term employment twice. The fixed term employment can also be extended without the Civil Service Act rules coming into force. However, this requires that the extension is due to objective reasons, such as

• Unforeseeable due dates, e.g. illness or pregnancy
• The work task requires more time than first assumed

If the extension of the fixed term employment is not due to objective circumstances, the employee can consider themselves a permanent employee of the company, and can, among other things, require that the termination be done with a notice of termination that also applies to the company's permanent employees. We have prepared an article that goes further into the depth of temporary employment, you can read it by clicking here. In addition, we have also written a post that goes in depth with the Danish Salaried Employee Act.

In the next section, we will briefly review which guidelines apply if your company wants to hire foreign workers.

What applies in relation to the employment of foreign labour?

Foreign nationals have moved massively into the Danish labour market. This can be seen for example in the Danish hospital system, where Danish psychiatrists and nurses are resigning from their positions, which has resulted in several Swedish doctors travelling to Denmark to fill these positions through temp agencies.

If your company employs employees who are not Danish citizens, you should be aware of the following rules:

• Citizens from Nordic countries are free to reside and work in Denmark. It therefore does not require a work permit
• EU citizens, EEA citizens and citizens from Switzerland also do not have to acquire a work permit before they can be employed in Denmark. If this group of citizens must work in Denmark for more than three months, they must have an EU/EEA residence document that proves that the employee has the right to reside in the country. This document is issued by the State Administration
• Citizens from third countries must have a residence and work permit in order to be employed in Denmark. Here, third countries are considered countries that are outside the Nordic countries, the EEA, the EU and Switzerland. Work permits are time limited and must therefore be renewed continuously. Therefore, your company must ensure that the foreign employees' work permits are always valid

It is also worth mentioning that your company must draw up an employment contract for the foreign employee according to the same rules that apply to Danish citizens. Furthermore, it must be comprehensible to the employee.

This is a sample of the rules that apply if you are considering hiring foreign workers. However, it is recommended that you seek legal guidance or external advice if you wish to employ a foreign employee.

Other types of employment are flexi jobs and flexible jobs, which you can read more about here: