Period of secondment
Article 5
1. The period of secondment shall be a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years. It may be renewed successively up to a total period not exceeding four years. However, in exceptional cases, at the request of the relevant Director-General of the GSC and after prior agreement of the employer, the Director-General of Administration of the GSC may authorise one or more extensions of the secondment beyond the four-year maximum referred to in the first subparagraph, up to an additional two years. 2. The period of secondment shall be fixed at the outset in the Exchange of Letters provided for in Article 4(1). The same procedure shall apply in the case of any renewal or extension of the period of secondment. 3. An expert who has previously been seconded to the GSC may be seconded again, subject to the following conditions: (a) the expert continues to meet the conditions for secondment referred to in Article 2; (b) a period of at least six years has elapsed since the end of the previous period of secondment, including any renewal and extensions, or any subsequent employment contract with the GSC. This provision shall not prevent the GSC from accepting the secondment, less than six years after the end of the previous period of secondment, of an expert whose previous secondment, including any renewals and extensions, lasted for less than six years, but in that case the new secondment shall not exceed the unexpired part of the latter six-year period.