Teleworking: where is one insured?
EU Framework Agreement of 1.7.23
MB – 05/2023
Many
office employees have been working from home during the pandemic. This
development has now become permanent: even after the end of the pandemic, many
"desk workers" are not permanently back in the office, but are now
increasingly working from home, and in some cases entirely from home. This is
also the case in the cross-border area and there is the question of where one
is actually insured. This is where the law on the coordination of social
security systems (Regulation (EC) No. 883/2004 (Regulation 883/2004)) comes
into play.
What does the coordination law basically provide for?
Title
ll of Regulation No. 883/2004 contains provisions on the applicable legislation
(so-called conflict-of-law rules). An important principle of Art. 11 of
Regulation 883/2004 is that employees and self-employed persons are regularly
subject to the legislation of only one Member State and that this should in
principle be the country where the gainful employment is pursued. In the case
of employees, the applicable legislation regularly depends on the place of
employment. If there is a permanent establishment, then the assignment to the
law of a Member State is easy in this respect. However, this is not so easy for
teleworkers because they sometimes work in different places (partly at home/
partly in the office) and there may also be a national border in between. In
this respect, they are employees with several places of employment in different
states and here Art. 13 of Regulation 883/2003 knows two associated factors:
- The
legal provisions of the state of residence apply if employees also exercise a
substantial part of their employment there.
- Otherwise,
the legal provisions of the state where the employer has its registered office
apply.
What has been thought about for the teleworkers?
During the pandemic, it was
agreed not to change the previous application
of the law to employees working from home and
therefore there will be no change in the competent Member State. So if someone
was previously insured in Germany because the place of employment there is with
the German employer, but in the meantime the person works predominantly from
home in France, then German law remains applicable. This determination is valid
until 30.6.2023.
As of 1.7.2023, a a
framework agreement will offer a simplified,
appropriate solution. Art. 16 para. of Regulation 883/2004 is a legal basis as
a so-called agreement of exemption, so that Member States can agree on a
specific application of the law in individual cases in derogation of the
general conflict-of-law rules. In future, the registered office of the employer
will be decisive, provided that the "home office" accounts for less
than 50% of the employee's total working time. The basic requirement is that
the employee and the employer must be resident/ established in Member States which
have signed the general framework agreement according to Art. 16 para. 1 of
Regulation 883/2004. The procedure is also simplified because only the
competent body in the Member State of the employer's registered office checks
whether the conditions of the framework agreement are met in the individual
case. If this is the case, an A1 certificate is issued and exchanged between
the institutions within the framework of the electronic exchange of data
between social insurance institutions (EESSI: Electronic Exchange of Social
Security Information). The employee also receives an A1 as proof.
Which are the participating Member States?
In addition to the National Association of
Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), German Liaison Office
for Health Insurance Abroad as the competent body in Germany, the competent bodies in Belgium
and Austria are also expected to sign the aforementioned framework agreement.
The Netherlands has also already announced that it will follow the framework
agreement. It is to be expected that more Member States will join in.