The employment contract

Posting workers overseas

Posting workers to another EU Member State

Workers posted on a temporary basis from one European Union (EU) Member State to another are covered by the Posting of Workers Directive.

Under the Posting of Workers Directive, as an employer you must ensure your workers receive the basic key terms and conditions of the Member State they have been posted to. For example, if workers are posted to a Member State that has a higher minimum wage than they normally receive, they are entitled to the minimum wage of that other country.

What is a posted worker?

A posted worker is one who is:

• posted to another EU Member State under a contract between them and another party in the other state
• posted to another part of the same business in another EU Member State
• posted by an employment business that hires out labour to another EU Member State but where the employment relationship is maintained

The terms and conditions that apply to posted workers are:

• maximum work periods
• annual paid holidays
• national minimum wage
• health and safety at work
• protection of workers who are pregnant or who have just given birth
• equal treatment between men and women and other provisions regarding non-discrimination

In the UK the following regulations apply:

• Working Time Regulations 1998
• National Minimum Wage Act and Regulations 1998
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000
• Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002
• Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
• Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003
• Health and safety legislation (primarily the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999)
• legislation regarding employment of children

National universally applicable collective agreements

In addition, employers will also have to abide by any universally applicable mandatory collective agreements which apply in the Member State they post workers to. There are, at present, no such agreements in the UK, apart from the national minimum wage.

Posting a worker to another EU state may require changing their employment contract. You can contact the Acas Helpline on Tel 08457 47 47 47 for further advice.

Tax and national insurance provisions are not covered by the Posted Workers Directive.

If you are posting workers to the UK, they will need to register in the UK for tax purposes. If your workers have an E101 form from their normal country of employment it could mean that continuing social security contributions can be continued to be paid at the host country rates.

To find out the regulations on tax and social security if workers are posted to the UK contact the HMRC Residency Helpline on Tel 0845 0700 040.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What a contract of employment is
• The written statement
• The principal statement
• Putting together an employee's written statement
• Implied terms of an employment contract
• Posting workers overseas
• How to change an existing contract
• Employee enforcement of the right to a written statement
• Breach-of-contract claims
• The principal statement

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