The continuing globalisation of the economy means that companies have to deploy their employees very flexibly – sometimes worldwide. This in return creates a significant challenge not only for the companies but also for their employees in terms of social security law.
In cases where the employment has points of contact with one or more member states and one or more agreement states, the question arises as to how the applicable law is to be determined.
The GKV-Spitzenverband has issued a circular which should help to assess these situations more easily.
The circular of the GKV-Spitzenverband has prepared four constellations for this purpose. We will go into two of them in more detail below.
Employment in the EU and posting to an agreement country: If an employee works in Germany for an employer based in Germany and additionally in other EU countries, German social security law applies to him or her overall for the employment carried out in the EU. If he attends a meeting in an agreement state (such as North Macedonia) in between, nothing changes. The A1 certificate remains valid. For the activity in the Agreement State, it has to be checked according to bilateral law whether it is a posting.
Employment in the EU and ordinary employment in the Agreement State: If an employee exercises ordinary employment in several EU Member States and simultaneously in an Agreement State, the employment in the EU and in the non-European state must be assessed separately. For example, German law may apply to the ordinary employment in several EU member states. For the part of the employment that is usually carried out in an agreement state, the social security agreement with that country applies. If the basis for a posting does not exist, German regulations could continue to apply on the basis of an exemption.
Note from the IAC:
Especially in cross-border situations, the examination of the applicability of the continued application of social security law becomes complex. In this context, modern forms of employment such as remote working or global working are subject to special tests. Due to the more flexible deployment options, the retention of the German social security system reaches its limits. It requires the exact consideration of the assignments, in order to have as complete an insurance protection as possible. This is easier within the EU. We offer various seminars on this topic. Just have a look, it is worth it. Here is the link to the online seminars: https://i-a-c.de/iac-seminare/