Posted workers in Estonia: notifying the Labour Inspectorate before day one

Under Estonia's act on the working conditions of posted workers, the posting employer must notify the Labour Inspectorate no later than the first day of the posting. The notice names a contact person in Estonia, the duration of the posting, the place where the work is done, and the workers being posted. The duty sits with the posting employer, not with the Estonian client.

The notice and what it contains

A posting is the situation where an employer established in another country sends its own worker to Estonia temporarily while remaining that person's employer. The employment relationship stays abroad, the work happens in Estonia, and that combination is what triggers the notification. The notice goes to the Labour Inspectorate by the first day of the posting at the latest, not within the first month and not once work has already started.

The notice must identify at least the posting employer, a person in Estonia the Labour Inspectorate can approach, the start and end dates of the posting, the place of work, and the workers concerned. The contact person is not a formality. Their job is to produce documents during an inspection, so the role belongs to someone reachable in Estonia for the whole posting, not to a colleague who travels on with the crew.

Documents have to be available in Estonia throughout the posting: the employment contract, working time records, and proof that wages were paid. If they sit only on a head office server and nobody on site can reach them, an inspection treats that the same way it treats documents that do not exist. What follows from a failed inspection in Estonia is set out in the illegal employment guide.

A posting is also not a way around immigration procedure. Where the posted worker is a third country national, they need a valid basis to work in the member state they are posted from, and arriving in Estonia does not replace that basis. The notification to the Labour Inspectorate answers a labour law question, not an immigration one.

Which Estonian rules apply to a posted worker

A posting does not mean the worker carries only home country terms. The Estonian posted workers act lists the Estonian rules that apply from the first day regardless of what the sending country's law provides. Where the home country condition is more favourable to the worker, the more favourable one stands.

The twelve month rule comes from Directive (EU) 2018/957, which amended the posting of workers directive. After twelve months the labour law of the host state applies in full, with the exception of certain termination and occupational pension provisions. A reasoned notification extends that period to eighteen months. The clock attaches to the post, not to the person: replacing one worker with another on the same post does not reset it, the periods are added together.

In practice a long site has to be planned against a calendar. On construction the twelfth month arrives sooner than the plan assumed, and from that point the payroll basis changes. An employer who discovers the date after it has passed calculates the difference retroactively. Where the same crew rotates through three phases, keep one table by month against the post rather than the person, because that is how the directive counts it.

The notice also has to be updated when the facts change. If the posting is extended, the site changes, or people are added to the crew, the original notice no longer describes reality, and for the Labour Inspectorate that reads much like no notice at all. The simplest arrangement is one named owner who reviews the notice every time the project schedule moves.

Where postings actually break

Three errors repeat. The first is timing: the notice is filed once the crew has already worked a week, and the date is on the document. The second is a contact person named on paper who does not answer the phone or hold the documents. The third is the pay gap, where the worker is paid the home country wage on the assumption that per diems close the difference, while the Estonian minimum wage requirement applies to the monetary wage.

The fourth error is rarer and more expensive: calling something a posting when it is not one. If the person was recruited solely to work in Estonia, does no substantive work in the home country, and the sending company is a letterbox entity, then this is an Estonian employment relationship with Estonian obligations attached, including the employment register entry. That entry and its deadline are covered in the employment register and payroll guide, and the client side of the checking chain in the sponsorship compliance chain guide.

The notice itself is a small piece of work. It takes less time than one working day on site, and its deadline is known the moment the contract is signed. Put the notification date into the project schedule on the same line as the crew's arrival, and mark the twelfth month date separately today. The employer side of the chain is collected on the employers page.