Workation the new digital trend

Home office has been the policy solution since Covid-19 to minimise the spread of social distance in the workplace. In the past, working from a home office was unthinkable and had negative connotations. This is because the employer has little confidence in the employee. Self-discipline is a must here, as is the separation of work and private life. It can be seen that after the Corona pandemic, significantly more people are able to work on the move than before and want to keep it that way. Almost no one wants to go back to open-plan offices after Corona. New Work is the new buzzword. One could see that the productivity and work performance from the home office has not diminished, which is why many companies are more open to this topic. 

The growing interest in remote work also increases the temptation to move the home office abroad. However, certain regulations apply to a possible stay and the employer’s written consent is required. Within the EU, remote work is the least complicated. The reason for this is that no residence permit or work permit is required. Exceptions to this are third countries such as the United Kingdom. An A1 certificate is required so that social security contributions are not charged twice. With an A1 certificate, an employee proves that he/she is covered by social security in his/her home country during a business trip to another European country. This certificate is valid within the EU, the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. However, there is a social security challenge & risk for working from abroad. Here, the employer must familiarise himself with the social security regulations of the other country and implement the registration, reporting and contribution obligations correctly and on time. There is a risk of sanctions from the competent authorities if social security contributions are paid to the wrong social security system. 

In order to ensure that mobile working abroad can be legally regulated, a forward-looking plan should be drawn up together with the HR department and corresponding regulations, recorded in a supplementary agreement, should be made. If there are any concerns that the productivity or accessibility of the employee abroad will suffer, you can agree on a kind of test run. This does not apply to self-employed persons, as self-employed persons are freer to choose their workplace.