News in the field of social insurance and cross-border telework

According to the general coordination rules, an employee working from home in one Member State for a foreign employer from another Member State is subject to a foreign insurance system if the scope of his work in the country of residence does not exceed the limit of 25% of his total working time. If this limit is exceeded, the employee is subject to the insurance regulations of the country of residence.

The new Framework Agreement allows remaining in the insurance system in the employer's country, even if the 25% limit is exceeded, but the scope of remote work in the country of residence will not exceed 50% of the working time. Furthermore, it must be fulfilled that:

• the employee carries out the cross-border telework from his place of residence, which is located in the Czech Republic, and the employer's registered office/place of business is located in another signatory member state or vice versa (i.e., the place of residence is in another signatory member state and the employer's place of business/premises is in the Czech Republic);
• the employee performs remote work using information technology (i.e., it is not a manual activity, face-to-face performance of work at a branch or visiting clients in the country of residence);
• the employee and the employer apply for an exception according to the Framework Agreement (i.e., for the granting of an A1 certificate issued by a competent authority in the employer's country; in the Czech Republic, this is the Czech Social Security Administration).

A request for exemption can only be submitted in relation to states that have signed the Framework Agreement. In addition to the Czech Republic, these are currently Belgium, Finland, France, Holland, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Austria, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

It is possible to apply for an exemption for the period from 1 July 2023 up to a period of 3 years, even repeatedly and with a retroactive effect of 3 months (assuming that the insurance is paid in the employer's country during this period). For requests submitted no later than 30 June 2024, it is possible to apply for an exemption retroactively up to 1 July 2023 (i.e., up to 12 months retroactively and again on the condition that during this period social security contributions were paid in the state of the employer's registered office or place of business).