Posted Workers Directive: The Rules Beyond the A1 Certificate
The A1 covers social security. The Posted Workers Directive covers wages, working time, and prior notification. Here's where the two rules collide and what employers actually have to file.
Cross-border work in the EU operates under two parallel legal regimes that newer HR teams often confuse. The A1 certificate handles social security continuity. The Posted Workers Directive (96/71/EC), as substantially revised by Directive (EU) 2018/957, handles everything else — minimum wage in the host country, working time, leave, health and safety, accommodation.
Who counts as a "posted worker"
The Directive applies when an employer established in one EU/EEA member state sends a worker to perform work in another for a limited time. The three classical scenarios:
- Sending an employee to perform a service for a client in another member state
- Transferring an employee to a subsidiary or sister company in another member state
- Hiring out a worker via a temporary work agency to a user-company in another member state
The classification "posted worker" is a narrow legal category. Business travellers attending meetings or conferences without performing services are generally not posted. The boundary is fuzzy and several member states (notably France, Belgium, Austria) take an expansive view.
What the host country can require
For a posting, the host country's rules apply on:
- Minimum rates of pay, including overtime — the revised 2018 Directive replaced "minimum rates" with "remuneration," meaning host-country bonus, allowance, and 13th-month rules apply
- Maximum work and minimum rest periods per the host country's implementation of the Working Time Directive
- Minimum paid annual leave
- Health, safety, and hygiene at work
- Protective measures for pregnant workers, children, and young people
- Equality of treatment between men and women
- Accommodation conditions where the employer provides housing
- Allowances or reimbursement for travel, board and lodging within the host country
For postings beyond 12 months (extendable to 18 with notification), the worker becomes entitled to virtually all of the host country's labour law — a regime called "long-term posting."
The prior notification obligation
Every EU member state operates a notification portal where the home-country employer must declare the posting before it begins. Common requirements:
- Identity of the employer and the local contact person
- Identity of the worker(s) being posted
- Duration and location of the work
- Nature of the service being provided
- Identity of the client or user-company
The European Commission's Your Europe Business portal links to every national notification system. Fines for non-notification range from €1,000 in some countries to over €10,000 per worker per day in others.
For broader cross-border hiring strategy, see our comparison of EOR platforms — for genuinely posted work the home-country employment relationship continues, but for routine cross-border hiring an EOR is often the cleaner answer.