Outsourcing vs. staffing agencies in Peru: choosing the right model

In many markets, the question “should we use an agency or a contractor?” is commercial. The answer depends on cost, speed and flexibility, and the legal consequences are broadly similar. Peru does not work that way. It has two separate statutes, two separate registries and two different liability regimes for what a global procurement team may see as a single category of “third-party labor”.

For a multinational, the practical risk is that a model approved at group level, typically a contingent workforce program run through a global managed service provider, is rolled out in Peru without checking which of the two Peruvian regimes it actually falls under. This article sets out the difference and offers a way to decide. The broader context is in our guide to outsourcing and staffing in Peru.

Two regimes, two logics

Outsourcing (tercerización) is governed by Law 29245, Legislative Decree 1038 and Supreme Decree 006-2008-TR. The client hands a complete activity or project to a contractor that performs it at its own account and risk, with its own resources, responsibility for results and exclusive control over its workers. The client buys a result. The requirements are explained in outsourcing requirements under Peruvian law.

Labor intermediation (intermediación laboral) is governed by Law 27626 and Supreme Decree 003-2002-TR. A service company places (destaca) its workers at the client, and the client directs their day-to-day work. The client buys labor capacity. Because that is closer to direct employment, the law only allows it in narrow circumstances.

When a staffing agency is allowed

Article 3 of Law 27626 limits labor intermediation to three situations:

• Temporary services: occasional needs and replacements (suplencia), for example covering a peak season or an employee on maternity leave.
• Complementary services: activities that are accessory to, and not linked with, the client’s principal activity, such as cleaning, security or maintenance.
• Highly specialized services: work requiring a high level of specialization that the client does not have in-house.

Two prohibitions apply across all three: agency workers cannot be used to replace workers on strike, and they cannot cover permanent activities that are part of the client’s principal business.

The 20% cap

Under article 6 of Law 27626, workers placed for temporary services cannot exceed 20% of the client’s total workforce. The cap does not apply to complementary or highly specialized services. A group that uses agency staff to absorb seasonal peaks in a Peruvian warehouse or call center should track this ratio monthly, because headcount on both sides moves.

Equal treatment for temporary placements

Article 7 gives workers placed for temporary services the right to the remuneration and conditions that the client grants its own employees. In practice, the client should share the relevant pay structures with the agency, and the agency fee should be calculated with that in mind.

What the agency itself must have

A lawful staffing agency in Peru must:

• Be a legal entity incorporated as a service company with an exclusive corporate purpose (articles 10–11 of Law 27626).
• Be registered in the RENEEIL, the national registry of companies and entities that carry out labor intermediation, kept by the labor authority.
• Post a bond (fianza) guaranteeing the labor and social security obligations owed to its placed workers (article 24).
• Register its contracts with users and report information to the labor authority. Failure to do so is classified as a serious infringement under article 33.2 of Supreme Decree 019-2006-TR.

Illustrative scenario

Choosing the right model: five questions

Before approving a Peruvian vendor under a global framework, it helps to answer the following:

1. Who will direct the individuals day to day? If the client, the arrangement is intermediation.
2. Is the need temporary, complementary or highly specialized? If none of the three applies, intermediation is not available and the options are outsourcing (with real autonomy) or direct hiring.
3. Is the activity permanent and part of the principal business? If yes, intermediation is excluded. Outsourcing is possible only with genuine autonomy; the Supreme Court’s annulment, in a popular action, of Supreme Decree 001-2022-TR removed the specific ban on outsourcing core activities, but its current status should be confirmed before relying on it.
4. Does the vendor hold the right registration? RENEEIL for agencies; the outsourcing registry for contractors with continuous displacement.
5. How is the price calculated? Hourly or per-head rates are consistent with staffing; per-deliverable pricing supports outsourcing.

Where the answers are mixed, that is a signal to redesign the arrangement rather than to choose the label that seems more convenient. The risks of choosing the wrong one are covered in when outsourcing is recharacterized in Peru.

Common mistakes

• Calling an agency arrangement “outsourcing” to avoid the three-case limit. Authorities look at the substance, applying the primacy-of-reality principle.
• Using agency staff for years in permanent roles. Long-term placements in the principal activity are exactly what the law excludes.
• Not tracking the 20% cap as headcount changes across the year.
• Paying temporary agency staff less than equivalent employees, in breach of the equal-treatment rule.
• Accepting a vendor’s global accreditation instead of checking its Peruvian registration and bond.
• Letting managers direct outsourced staff, which turns a lawful outsourcing into a de facto staffing arrangement. See managing outsourced personnel without creating employment.

Consequences

Under article 5 of Law 27626 and article 14 of its regulations, breaching the permitted cases, the percentage cap or the registration requirement means that a direct employment relationship is deemed to exist between the client and the placed worker. For outsourcing, Law 29245 provides an equivalent result when the autonomy requirements are not met. In both cases, SUNAFIL, Peru’s labor inspection authority, can impose administrative fines within the statutory caps of Law 28806, which are expressed in UIT (the tax reference unit, S/ 5,500 in 2026).

Preventive recommendations

As a preventive criterion, we recommend that groups operating in Peru:

• Add a Peruvian addendum to global contingent-workforce and MSP policies that reflects the three permitted cases and the 20% cap.
• Require, before onboarding, proof of RENEEIL registration and of the bond for agencies, and of registration for outsourcing contractors with continuous displacement.
• Keep an internal register of all third-party workers on site, classified by legal regime.
• Review long-running placements at least annually and move them to direct hiring or a genuine outsourced service when they no longer fit.
• Train line managers on the difference between directing agency staff and managing an outsourced service. The vendor review steps are detailed in what to check before hiring an outsourcing provider in Peru.

Our outsourcing and staffing practice helps foreign groups classify their vendors and adapt global programs to these rules.

Bottom line

In Peru, outsourcing and staffing are not interchangeable procurement options. Staffing agencies are a narrow, regulated exception for temporary, complementary or specialized needs, with a cap, a bond and client liability behind them. Outsourcing is broader, but only for contractors that deliver a service autonomously. Deciding which model applies should come before the vendor is selected, not after an inspector asks.