Title: The Legal Framework for the Secondment of Public Employees to the Private Technology Sector (and Vice Versa): A Comparative Study

Abstract

This research examines and comparatively analyzes the legal framework governing the secondment of public employees to private technology companies and the secondment of technology experts from the private sector to the public administration—a practice now known in modern administrative jurisprudence as “reverse secondment.” The importance of this study stems from the accelerating pace of digital transformation and the pressing need for public utilities to attract technological expertise to manage digital systems, while simultaneously, the private sector seeks to leverage the organizational and sovereign expertise of public employees. The study aims to address the legislative gap and overcome the legal obstacles hindering this reciprocal employment mobility, focusing on protecting the sovereign data of government agencies on the one hand, and the trade secrets and intellectual property of technology companies on the other.

To achieve these objectives, the research employs a comparative analytical approach, examining civil service legislation and laws regulating the technology sector in several comparative legal systems. The study reached several conclusions, most notably a clear legislative deficiency in traditional public service laws. These laws, designed to regulate conventional secondments between government entities or international organizations, fail to consider the unique nature of the technology sector and its specific obligations regarding data confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and the determination of ownership of innovations developed during the secondment. Accordingly, the research recommends the establishment of flexible legal frameworks that facilitate the exchange of human expertise between the two sectors, along with the development of standard secondment contracts that include stringent data confidentiality clauses and blackout periods to prevent conflicts of interest after the secondment ends.