Guide to delegation and secondment: what sets them apart, the 60-day limit for delegation and one year for secondment, the employee's consent, pay rights and the travel order.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
Delegation (delegare) and secondment (detașare) are the only situations in which an employer may unilaterally amend the employment contract — which is why the law frames them strictly. Confusing the two produces payment errors and, sometimes, justified refusals from employees. Here are the differences.
| Delegation | Secondment | |
|---|---|---|
| What changes | the place of work | the place and the employer |
| Who the work is performed for | still your own employer | another employer |
| Contract with the initial employer | continues normally | is partly suspended |
| Maximum initial duration | 60 calendar days | 1 year |
| Extension | with the employee’s consent, max. 60 days | with the employee’s consent, every 6 months |
| Specific pay entitlement | diurnă + transport + accommodation | entitlements from the employer to which the employee is seconded, under the more favourable variant rule |
In short: under delegation you remain your own company’s employee, but you work elsewhere. Under secondment you move temporarily under the authority of another employer.
This is the temporary performance, on the employer’s instruction, of work or tasks outside the usual place of work.
The first 60-day period can be ordered unilaterally. Anything beyond that interval requires explicit consent.
A delegated employee is entitled to:
This is the temporary change of the place of work, on the employer’s instruction, to another employer, for the purpose of carrying out work in the latter’s interest.
For the duration of the secondment, entitlements are granted by the employer to which the secondment was made. The protective rule: the employee benefits from whichever entitlements are more favourable — either those from the employer that ordered the secondment, or those from the employer to which they are seconded.
If the employer to which the secondment was made does not meet its obligations, those obligations fall on the employer that ordered the secondment. This is an important guarantee for the employee — and a risk the initial employer must be aware of.
The document that justifies the delegation — and, by extension, the diurnă — is the travel order (ordinul de deplasare, also called delegația). Without it, the costs become hard to justify for tax purposes, and the diurnă can be reclassified as salary income.
It must contain:
The date and time matter directly: the length of the trip determines whether a diurnă is granted for that day.
The delegation allowance covers meals and incidental expenses. For domestic trips there is a daily tax-free cap — calculated as a multiple of the public reference figure — above which the excess becomes income assimilated to salary, with tax and contributions.
The calculation details, including the additional filter relative to the base salary, are covered separately in the guide to the diurnă.
How long can a delegation last? A maximum of 60 calendar days in 12 months, ordered unilaterally. An extension, in periods of up to 60 days, is possible only with the employee’s consent.
Can I be sanctioned if I refuse to extend a delegation? No. Refusing an extension beyond the first 60 days cannot be a ground for a disciplinary sanction.
What is the difference from secondment? Under delegation you remain employed by the same company and work in a different place. Under secondment you perform work for another employer, and the initial contract is partly suspended.
Who pays the salary during a secondment? The employer to which the secondment was made. The employee benefits from the more favourable entitlements of the two relationships, and if the new employer does not pay, the obligation falls on the one that ordered the secondment.
Is the travel order mandatory? In practice, yes: without it you cannot justify the diurnă and the travel costs for tax purposes.
See also the diurnă in 2026 and the individual employment contract.
Delegations are easily lost track of: someone goes out on the road, comes back, and at the end of the month nobody knows exactly how many days it was. Workly records delegation as an event type in the time records, with the start and end date and time — exactly the data from the travel order — so that travel days are counted automatically, not reconstructed.
From there, the diurnă is calculated in payroll on the basis of the actual days, with the daily cap applied and the excess treated correctly for tax purposes. The system also tracks the cumulative 60 days over 12 months, flagging the point at which you need the employee’s consent for an extension — before you exceed the limit, not after.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not legal advice. The rules on delegation and secondment depend on the specific situation and on the applicable collective labour agreement — consult a specialist for particular cases.
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