My boss has assigned his secretary as a supervisor over me,an engineer, just because he doesn't come to office everyday. I have obtained a professional engineering degree and work experience. Are there any guidelines for appropriate supervisory roles.This picture seems very unusual to me, can my boss just do what he pleases or are there proper structure and protocol that he should follow in dealing with professional employees.
Thanks

This does not fall under labor law, sorry.
I'm sure if you take it in good humor it won't be a problem, and the secretary will leave you to your job. Think of the arrangement more as just a conduit to your boss' ear for mundane requests or noting hours or collecting progress reports.

When they mean that she's assigned to supervise you, doesn't that just mean that she has to make sure that you get the work done? I doubt they will depend on the secretary to review your work. In the end, your manager will review the work anyway.

I wouldn't treat it like she's your superior, she's just there to make sure that you get the job done on time.

There are no laws, there may be company policy, if this a large national company where you can appeal this to HR.

But a Engineering supervisor does not have to be an Engineer, but they should be a manager.

But then I have known several companies that did actually promote a secretary to manager jobs

Your boss makes decisions designed to resolve his issues first, yours would always be secondary to that.

Part of any professional's career is learning how to work within the paradigm of his office.

Your job here is not to bellyache how much smarter you may be than this secretary, but to find how this situation can best be used to your advantage and to the overall success of your entire team.

In the end, if this doesn't "work out", make sure you aren't the reason it doesn't. She's not doing your job, you still are.

How great could it be that this secretary gets better at her job because of the work you do?