If I hire a foreign employee, do I have to inform the Labour Inspectorate thereof?

Vladimir Logatšev, lead counselling lawyer at the Labour Inspectorate responds:

Employers are required to register with the Labour Inspectorate only those employees who are posted to work in Estonia. An employee posted to work in Estonia is a natural person who usually works in a Member State of the European Union, the European Economic Area or the Swiss Confederation on the basis of an employment contract, and whom the employer posts to work in Estonia for a specified period of time for the provision of a service.

The primary difference between a posted employee and an employee on a business trip is that a posted employee always has a specific recipient, ie a recipient of the service (a parent company or subsidiary within the group or user undertaking in the case of temporary agency work). Therefore, a posted employee has an undertaking in the host state that organises their work or working environment. In Estonian terms, if an employee is sent on a business trip, eg to participate in a trade fair, there is no one in the host state receiving the employee.

The employer of the posted employee must register the employee posted to work in Estonia before the employee commences work in Estonia. Registration requires the submission of a posting notice in the self-service of the Labour Inspectorate (TEIS). Should any data change, the previously submitted posting notice can be changed in the self-service before the changes enter into force.

The following data must be submitted to the Labour Inspectorate:

1. the name, personal identification code or registry code, area of activity, details of residence or location and means of communication of the employer of the posted employee;
2. the name and details of the means of communication of the contact person who represents the employer of the posted employee;
3. the number of posted employees, their names and personal identification codes or dates of birth and numbers of their identity documents;
4. the expected duration of the posting and the scheduled start date and end date;
5. the name, personal identification code or registry code, area of activity, details of residence or location and means of communication of the contracting entity or contracting authority for whom the posted employee works in Estonia;
6. the name and/or details of the means of communication of the contact person who represents the contracting entity or contracting authority for whom the posted employee works in Estonia;
7. information regarding the area of activity in which the posted employee will be working in Estonia, and the address of the place in which the posted employee will perform the work.

Read more about posted employees and their registration here and here.