The European Commission has presented a new Framework Agreement to make it easier for cross-border workers to pay their insurance premiums. From 1 July 2023, workers can work from home on a larger scale without the employer having to register and pay contributions in the employee’s country of residence.

The place of physical employment is often a decisive criterion for determining an employee’s affiliation to insurance regulations, and teleworking (or working from home) abroad has implications for both the employee and the employer. If an employee has an employer abroad, performs his work in more than one Member State and his activity in his country of residence exceeds at least 25% of his total activity, he is automatically covered by the insurance scheme in his country of residence under the current rules. Due to the Framework Agreement, the limit on the proportion of time worked has now been raised to 49.9%, where, if the conditions are met, requests for such exemptions will be approved automatically without the need for consent from another Member State.

The Czech Republic was one of the first countries to sign the Framework Agreement. In addition to the Czech Republic, 17 other countries have now signed. Countries can accede to the agreement even after it is in place. It is possible to apply for an exemption for up to 3 years, but a request may also be placed repeatedly. Retroactive applications will only be possible under certain conditions. If no exemptions are requested, the employee’s jurisdiction will be determined according to the insurance rules under the applicable EU coordination rules.

The Framework Agreement sets out the following conditions for granting an exemption:

• the employee works from home in a country of residence different from the employer’s country of registered office,
• the work is not performed in any Member State other than the country of residence and the employer’s registered office,
• the employee has an employer (one or more) in only one Member State,
• the employee performs the same work at the place of residence that would be performed from the employer’s registered office, but it is not manual work,
• the employee spends no more than 49.9% of his working time in his country of residence,
• the employee and the employer jointly apply for an exemption in the country, where the employee wants to be insured,
• both the country of residence and the country of the employer’s registered office have signed the Framework Agreement.

The framework agreement cannot be applied if the employee is also self-employed or if he works from a branch of his employer in his country of residence. In such situations, an exemption may be requested under Article 16(1) of Regulation (EC).

Author: Roman Burnus, Anna Beránková