Posted workers in the EU: your rights when a company sends you abroad

You are hired by a company in one EU country - say Poland or Portugal - and it sends you to work on a project in Germany, Belgium or France. You are now a posted worker, and a specific body of EU law exists to protect you, because posting is exactly where wage abuse in Europe most often happens. If you work through subcontractors in construction, trucking, meat processing or shipbuilding, this article is about you.

What posting is (and is not)

Posting means your employer temporarily sends you to provide services in another EU country while you remain employed - and socially insured - in the sending country. It is not the same as simply moving abroad and taking a local job, and it is not a permanent arrangement: after 12 months (extendable to 18 with notification), essentially all of the host country's labour law applies to you.

The core rule: host-country pay for host-country work

Since the revised Posting of Workers Directive, the principle is equal pay for equal work in the same place. While posted you are entitled to the host country's:

• Remuneration - not just its bare minimum wage, but the mandatory pay elements of applicable collective agreements: pay scales, overtime rates, allowances. A Romanian welder posted to Belgium must be paid at Belgian rates for that work, not Romanian ones.
• Maximum working hours and minimum rest periods
• Minimum paid annual leave
• Health and safety standards
• Accommodation standards where the employer provides housing, and allowances or reimbursement for travel, board and lodging when travelling for work within the host country.

Crucially, allowances that merely reimburse your expenses (transport, housing) may not be counted as part of your wage. "We pay you the German minimum, minus 600 EUR for the bunk bed" is the classic illegal construction.

Social security stays home - with paperwork

While posted, you normally remain in your home country's social security system, proven by an A1 certificate your employer must obtain. Ask for a copy. No A1, or an A1 that looks recycled from someone else, is a warning sign that you are not properly declared - which can hurt you at inspections, in accidents and at pension time. Postings for social security purposes are generally limited to around 24 months.

What your employer must arrange before you go

Posting comes with employer paperwork you can check. Before or at the start of the posting, the employer must usually make a posting declaration to the host country's authorities (systems like France's SIPSI or Belgium's Limosa), obtain your A1 certificate, and in construction often register you with sector schemes and holiday funds. You should receive information about your pay and conditions during the posting in writing - if the posting changes your salary, allowances or housing, that belongs on paper before departure, not in a phone call. In several host countries you are also entitled to see which collective agreement applies to your work and what its hourly rates are; Germany and Belgium publish the generally binding construction rates openly. An employer who has done posting properly can produce all of this in minutes. One who becomes vague when you ask for the A1 or the declaration reference number is telling you something important.

Red flags in posting arrangements

• Long subcontracting chains where nobody will name your actual employer
• Pay split into a tiny official wage plus cash "daily allowances"
• Deductions for housing, transport and tools that eat most of the payslip
• Letterbox companies: an "employer" in a low-wage country with no real activity there
• Being charged a fee for the posting itself - nobody legitimate charges workers for a job

Where to get help

Every EU country runs an official website on posting rules and a liaison office for posted workers; host-country labour inspectorates handle complaints and, in many countries, unions assist posted workers regardless of membership. The European Labour Authority coordinates cross-border enforcement. Document everything: contract, payslips, hours, housing photos.

Note that posting rules are about EU-based employment relationships; if you are a non-EU citizen your right to be posted depends on being legally employed in the sending country first - see EU work permits and visas explained. This article is general information, not legal advice; official sources include the European Labour Authority and eures.europa.eu.

If your current arrangement feels wrong, remember you have alternatives: direct employers across Europe hire foreign workers on local contracts with full local rights. Create your free Workuro profile - free, no credit card - and let them contact you directly. Create your free profile today.