The WagwEU’s long-awaited notification obligation will come into force on 1 march 2020.

After several delays, the notification obligation for employers (service providers) who will carry out a temporary assignment in the Netherlands and who operate from countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, will enter into force on 1 march 2020. This notification obligation originates from the Employment Conditions Act of seconded workers in the European Union (WagwEU), which entered into force as early as 18 June 2016. An online notifying system is available for reporting (which can be found on: https://english.postedworkers.nl/). The notification must include: (i) which activities will be conducted, (ii) during which period and (iii) if employees are brought along. The arrival of each seconded employee has to be reported.

Service providers, self-employed workers and service recipients

The WagwEU draws a distinction between service providers, self-employed workers and service recipients. Service providers are foreign employers who temporarily:

• perform work in the Netherlands while bringing their own employees (i.e. employed with the foreign employer): or
• post employees from a multinational company to a branch of that company in the Netherlands; or
• in the capacity of foreign employment agency, make available temporary workers in the Netherlands.

Self-employed persons who come to carry out a temporary assignment in the Netherlands, also have to notify this in some cases. Service recipients are customers/clients for which the foreign employer (i.e. the service provider) or self-employed person goes to work. If a foreign employer or self-employed person hires another company to work for a Dutch customer/client and the work is performed in the Netherlands, then this qualifies as subcontracting. If so, the foreign employer or self-employed person qualifies as the service recipient. The third company must notify the authorities for its own personnel and the foreign employer or self-employed person must check this notification.

Details

For the notification, foreign employers must report the following:

• the identity of the notifier;
• the company details;
• the contact person, as defined in article 7 of the WagwEU;
• the identity of the customer/client;
• the sector in which the activities are carried out in the Netherlands;
• the workplace address;
• the expected duration of the activities;
• the identity of the person responsible for paying the salary;
• the identity of the employees who come to work in the Netherlands;
• the presence of an A1 certificate or other type of proof showing where the social security contributions are paid for the employee(s), because of the contribution to the applicable social security scheme.

Self-employed persons who are obligated to notify, must report their identity, the identity of the client/customer, the sector in which the activities are carried out, the address of the workplace, the duration of the activities and the information on where the social security contributions are paid. It is possible to report as early as 1 February 2020. If you have any questions about the obligation to report of the WagwEU, please contact our Employment Law Team.