Registration and provision of data

Registration

Pursuant to section 5¹ of the Working Conditions of Employees Posted to Estonia Act, employees posted to Estonia must be registered with the Labour Inspectorate. The employer of a posted worker must register the employees being posted to Estonia prior to the employee actually starting work in Estonia.
Registration requires the submission of a posting notice in the self-service of the Labour Inspectorate (TEIS) at iseteenindus.ti.ee. Should any data change, the previously submitted posting notice can be changed in the self-service before the changes enter into force.  

• Notifications of the posted workers (starting from 17.07.2023)
• Notifications of the posted workers (until 14.07.2023, only for non-residents after that)

The following data must be submitted to the Labour Inspectorate:

1. the name, personal identification code or registry code, area of activity, and details of the residence or location and means of communication of the employer of the posted worker;
2. the name and details of communication of the contact person representing the employer of the posted worker;
3. the number of posted workers, their names, personal identification codes or dates of birth, and numbers of 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, and details of the residence or location and means of communication of the contracting entity or contracting authority and/or person for whom the posted employee works in Estonia;
6. the name, personal identification or registry code, field of activity, residence or seat and means of communication of the contact person for the contracting authority and/or person for whom the posted employee works in Estonia;
7. information regarding in which area of activity the posted employee will be working in Estonia, and the address of the place of performance of work of the posted worker.

In the event of failure to comply with the requirement to register employees that have been posted to Estonia, the Labour Inspectorate has the right to assign a penalty of up to 300 fine units to a natural person and up to 32 000 euros to a legal person. The Labour Inspectorate has the right to disclose personal data submitted to the Labour Inspectorate to ensure the performance of tasks assigned to the Tax and Customs Board by tax laws.

Duration and extension of the posting

The employer must apply the working conditions prescribed in section 5 subsection 1 of the Working Conditions of Employees Posted to Estonia Act to an employee who has been posted to Estonia for a posting of up to 12 months. If the posting lasts for more than 12 months, the employer is required to guarantee the employee all working conditions in force in Estonia (except for the rights and obligations related to concluding and terminating the employment contract, including the restriction on competition that is valid following the termination of employment and occupational pension schemes). For example, if a posted worker must be guaranteed the duration of annual leave from the beginning of his or her posting in accordance with Estonian law, then after 12 months he or she will also be subject to the Estonian employment law in regards to scheduling annual leave and expiry of annual leave.

If the employer has replaced the posted worker with another posted worker performing the same duty in the same place, the duration of the postings of the employees is added up (e.g. if the first posted worker installed pipes on the site and left after eight months, and another posted worker took their place installing pipes on the same site, it is sensible to add up the durations of the two postings of the posted workers in Estonia. If the other employee works for more than four months, they are considered a long-term posted worker after the completion of four months and the other employee becomes subject to all Estonian employment law from the fifth month of their employment).

A 12-month period can be extended up to 18 months. To extend the period, you need to add a justification in the self-service of the Labour Inspectorate (TEIS) to the corresponding posting notice, which appears automatically if the posting exceeds 12 months. The notice must be justified, ie it must be stated why the posted employee needs to stay in Estonia for more than 12 months.

If the posting lasts for more than 18 months, all working conditions in force in Estonia must be applied to the employee (except for the rights and obligations related to concluding and terminating the employment contract, including the restriction on competition that is valid following the termination of employment and occupational pension schemes).

If the long-term posted worker is a temporary agency worker, the user undertaking must inform the employer which working conditions shall apply to the employee after 12 or 18 months have passed.