Working from home in another EU Member State from a social security aspect
For questions regarding the coordination of systems of social security in the EU, Regulation No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 and Regulation No 987/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009, are applicable. The social security rules, which were passed in accordance with these regulations, embody the principle lex loci laboris – by taking into account the location where a worker physically carries out his work. Under this general rule, the legislation of the Member State in which the person is employed or self-employed shall apply. Therefore, if an employee is employed by a foreign employer but carries out the work entirely from home (from Slovenia), he should be insured in Slovenia in accordance with Article 11 of the Regulation No 883/2004.
However, where the work is only partially carried out in Slovenia, the employee must nevertheless be included in the Slovenian social security system. If a person normally (if it is not just a casual/temporary work arrangement) works in several countries, then in accordance with Article 13 of Regulation No 883/2004 that person is subject to the legislation of the Member State of residence if he pursues a substantial part of his activity in that Member State. A significant part of an activity under Article 14 of Regulation 987/2009 means that the employee performs at least 25% of the work in the country of residence, which is assessed by working time and/or payment. An estimate of the time to be spent working in the various countries over the next 12 months is a key factor in determining the applicable legislation.
If the employee was working full-time in the country of the employer’s company seat before the epidemic, and since then, for a period of 12 months, has been working from home in Slovenia for at least 25% of his working time, he should be covered by Slovenian social insurance in the future.
Article 16 of Regulation No 883/2004 stipulates that two or more Member States or their competent authorities may by common agreement provide for exceptions to those rules in the interest of certain persons or categories of persons, so that the employee is insured in the country he prefers. The employer can, upon the employee’s request, file an application for an exemption with a competent authority in a Member State whose legislation would be applied at the request of the employee. This option is used in practice by many employees that should be insured in Slovenia but would be better off if included in the social insurance system of a neighboring country (the most common example being Austria). In Slovenia, the competent authority is the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia.
Author: Eva Jean, Associate
