Social Security Affiliation Extended for German Teleworking Cross-border Workers until 31 August

Luxembourg and Germany have extended their agreement on cross-border workers' social security affiliation for teleworking until 31 August 2020.

Luxembourg's Minister of Social Security, Romain Schneider, and his German counterpart, the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Hubertus Heil, have extended the agreement on the conditions for affiliation to social security of cross-border workers in terms of teleworking until the end of August.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Luxembourg, many companies have implemented measures to increase the use of teleworking. However, working from home can have consequences on the affiliation of cross-border workers to social security under the provisions of European legislation relating to the coordination of social security systems of member states.

Consequently, Minister Romain Schneider has been in contact with his Belgian, German and French counterparts from the beginning to find an agreement to avoid a change in affiliation if a certain threshold was exceeded for the workers and employers concerned. Following these interactions, it was decided that, in light of the current exceptional circumstances, teleworking days linked to the COVID-19 crisis would not be taken into account for the determination of the social security legislation applicable to the workers concerned and therefore would have no influence on their social security affiliation.

This agreement has just been extended with Germany until 31 August 31 2020, and follows that of Luxembourg and Belgium as announced yesterday.

Social Security Minister Romain Schneider commented: “I thank Germany for their openness and flexibility in this area. Teleworking is an important tool in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, so businesses and employers must be able to continue using it without suffering any unwanted consequences".