More and more employees want to work from abroad for a period of time, but employers in Germany will want to consider the implications of German immigration and employment-related laws on such arrangements, known as “workations.”

• Unless there is an individual or collective agreement in place, employees in Germany generally have no legal right to workation.
• Without an A1 Certificate, employers risk a double obligation to pay social security contributions.
• German law remains applicable during short-term workation within the EU, and mandatory foreign employee protection laws may also apply.

A recent study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and Organization shows how popular this concept has become: 68 percent of respondents are already familiar with the concept of workation, and many respondents reported increased motivation (65 percent) and higher job satisfaction (71 percent). For employers, workation can therefore be both an attractive tool to boost employee satisfaction and a strategic advantage in the competition for skilled workers. According to the Fraunhofer study, only 34 percent of employers currently offer this form of mobile work, which reveals significant untapped potential.

Social Security Law: Risk of Contribution Obligations Abroad

A key risk for employers is the requirement to pay social security contributions both in Germany and abroad. Strictly speaking, employers may have to pay social security contributions abroad from day one when...

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