Czech Republic: Social and health insurance in the case of workers posted abroad
During secondments abroad, an employee performs work on behalf and on the account of his or her domestic employer on the territory of another Member State.
The social security aspects of such secondments, or postings, are addressed by Regulation (EC) 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, on the coordination of social security systems.
The basic rule of the above-cited Regulation says that employees must make social insurance payments in that country in which they pursue gainful employment. However, the special rule for the posting of workers abroad set out in Article 12 (1) of the Regulation makes an exemption from this general principle, in that employees remain part of the relevant social security system in that state from which they were posted. This applies if the secondment satisfies the following requirements:
• The posted worker remains the employee of the Czech employer with whom he or she is in an employment relationship,
• It is the Czech employer who assigns work tasks to the employee and remunerates him or her for their work,
• The duration of the posting must not exceed two years,
• The employee must not have been sent to replace another employee.
In the event of a workplace inspection in the other Member State, the posted employee must present (in the original) a document known as A1 certificate. This certificate is issued by the Czech Social Security Administration (ČSSZ) in the Czech Republic based on a joint request by employee and employer.
In terms of social insurance, health insurance, and mandatory employer’s liability insurance, nothing changes for the Czech employer: they must pay the social security contributions within the stipulated time periods, and the gross wage of the posted worker must be included in the assessment base for calculating the premium towards mandatory employer’s liability insurance.
In closing, we would like to remind Czech employers that, when posting their employees abroad, they should find out about the local employment laws that will apply to their employees during their secondment in the other country, especially as regards the following:
• minimum wage regulations in the given country,
• observance of maximum shift lengths and prescribed break times,
• working hours regulations and minimum entitlement to paid vacation days.
Source: Regulation (EC) 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council