Win: Chamber prevented increase of administrative burden on companies in relation to posted workers

Last autumn, the Ministry of Social Affairs came out with the draft that in certain situations gave Estonian companies the obligation to submit data to the Labour Inspectorate on employees posted in Estonia. Based on a proposal made by the Chamber of Commerce, the Ministry has now abandoned the amendment that would increase the administrative burden for companies.

Initially, the Ministry of Social Affairs wanted to amend the act on working conditions of employees posted to Estonia, according to which an Estonian company would have had to submit data on an employee posted to Estonia and their employer to the Labour Inspectorate, unless the Estonian and foreign company have agreed on who should submit the data to the Labour Inspectorate in Estonia.

For example, if a Latvian company posts its employee for the provision of services to an Estonian company and the parties do not agree on who has to send the data on the posting to the Labour Inspectorate, then according to the first version of the draft act, the Estonian company would be obliged to do that. This means that upon entering into force of the draft act, the Estonian company would have had to notify the Labour Inspectorate of the data of the Latvian company and the posted employee (name, personal identification code, duration of the posting, date of start and end of the posting, area of activity of the posted employee, place of work in Estonia).

The Chamber was against this amendment as it would increase the administrative burden on Estonian companies. The need for the amendment did not arise from any of the European Union directives. The Ministry of Social Affairs took our proposal into account and left the amendment out of the draft act.