European Commission proposes new online portal for posted worker declarations
The European Commission has proposed to establish a single declaration portal for companies posting workers to provide services in another European Union (EU) country.
The single digital declaration portal will:
- Reduce the administrative burden for posting workers: The portal will allow companies to use a single form, available in all official EU languages, instead of using 27 different national forms. On average, this will decrease the time spent on the declarations by 73%. The information requested is streamlined to some 30 data points. It will provide for a user-friendly one-stop shop for declaring posted workers in the EU. This will facilitate businesses’ compliance with declaration obligations to competent national authorities.
- Enhance cooperation among EU countries: The new portal will be part of the Internal Market Information System (IMI) that is already used to monitor compliance with the rules on posting of workers. The new public interface will also be based on technical solutions already put in place for the electronic declaration of posted road transport workers, where an electronic public interface, which is also connected to the IMI, is already available since 2022.
- Support protection of workers: Simplifying the process will reduce cases of non-compliance and increase the transparency of postings. The portal will facilitate inspections by EU countries, contributing to the protection of posted workers’ rights.
EU countries will be able to use the portal on a voluntary basis. Participating EU countries will see the administrative cost of posting workers greatly reduced. This will contribute to the EU objective of reducing companies’ reporting burden by 25%, as outlined in the Communication on ‘Long-term competitiveness of the EU’.
Background
The EU Single Market counts 5 million posted workers. One of the main administrative barriers faced by their employers is to handle multiple and diverse documentation in each Member State.
The freedom to provide services includes the right for businesses to provide services in another Member State, by posting their workers there temporarily. When doing so, service providers must comply with conditions of employment in that Member State as set out in Directive 96/71/EC on the posting of workers. Member States are required to work in close cooperation and provide each other with mutual assistance to facilitate the monitoring of compliance with these terms and conditions of employment.
Furthermore, Directive 2014/67/EU on the enforcement of Directive 96/71/EC provides the possibility for Member States to impose an obligation for service providers established in another Member State to make a simple posting declaration to the competent national authorities of the receiving Member State, containing the relevant information necessary to allow factual controls at the workplace.
First announced in the Update to the 2020 New Industrial Strategy, this action was part of the March 2024 Communication ‘Labour and Skills Shortages in the EU: An Action Plan’. In this plan, the Commission announced that it will promote the widespread implementation of a common form of electronic format for posted worker declarations, complemented by the development of a digital multilingual portal through which companies can submit posting declarations for Member States that decide to make use of this tool. The initiative was also announced in the Commission Work Programme for 2024.
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