With effect from 1 March 2023, the Czech Republic has entered into a framework agreement with Germany and Austria on cross-border telework (also known in practice as telework or remote work – read more on this topic here), which extends the flexibility of Article 16(1) of EC Regulation 883/2004 (the “Regulation”). According to this Article, by agreement between the two Member States concerned, a worker may be exempted from the application of Article 13 of the Regulation, according to which, in previous practice, the worker was automatically subject to the social security system of the State of residence if the telework in the State of residence exceeded 25% of his total working time.

Conditions

The new framework agreements concern employees, who meet the following conditions:

• they have only one employer,
• carry out cross-border telework (usually from home) for that employer,
• teleworking has the same characteristics as work carried out at the employer’s premises,
• telework is carried out using information technology,
• teleworking in the country of residence accounts for 25-40% of the total dependent gainful activity,
• the granting of an exemption is in the interest of the person.

Example

The employee works remotely in Austria, where he resides, for 40% of his working time (i.e. 2 working days per week). According to Article 13 of the Regulation, such an employee is automatically covered by the Austrian social security system (state of residence), even though he works for a Czech employer under a Czech employment contract. In light of the new framework agreement, it will be possible to work from home in Austria without changing the relevant social security system, i.e. the employee will continue to be covered by Czech law. The key is always the interest of the person concerned – i.e., assuming that it is in the interest of the employee concerned to maintain his/her participation in the Czech social security system, where his/her employer is based, such employee may apply for an exemption under the framework agreement. The competent social security institutions will approve the application, if the decisive limit of a maximum of 40 % of working time in Austria is met. A decision on the application will always be issued for a maximum of two years, with extension of the validity of the A1 form issued being possible on the basis of a new application.

Finally, framework agreements do not apply to self-employed workers, who work cross-border from home.

Author: Vladimír Toráč, Marek Toráč