Posted workers in Montenegro and the declaration to the labour inspectorate

A foreign company or agency posting a worker to Montenegro must file a complete and accurate posting declaration with the labour inspectorate before the posting begins, electronically and in sworn translation. Article 75g of the Law on Foreigners sets the duty, and the declaration also names the person who holds the documentation on site.

That duty runs alongside the permit, not instead of it. A posted worker still needs a temporary residence and work permit, which the Ministry of Interior decides within 15 days of a complete file against 67 euros in fees. Employers that treat posting as the lighter form of hiring usually miss that obligations multiply in this regime, because the file sits before two authorities.

Three forms of posting and their conditions

Article 68(3) distinguishes three situations. The first is the provision of contracted services under a contract between a foreign company and a legal person established in Montenegro. The second is movement within a foreign company, meaning the temporary assignment of an employee to a branch or to a company registered in Montenegro. The third is the assignment of a worker to an employer in Montenegro through a temporary work agency registered outside Montenegro.

All three are issued outside the annual quota under Article 78(1), points 6, 7 and 7a. That is the real advantage of the regime, because the file does not depend on how many permits remain in the activity. The price of that advantage is stricter documentation: the evidence under Articles 73 and 75b must be translated into Montenegrin by a sworn translator, and the independent expert under Article 72(2) is excused only the proof of employment, not the rest.

For agency assignment, Article 75a splits the roles in a way that users often read wrongly. The agency is treated as the employer, except for occupational safety and health, where the user in Montenegro is the employer. An accident on site therefore remains the responsibility of the company whose site it is, whoever pays the wage.

Which Montenegrin rules apply to a posted worker

Article 75v lists nine areas where Montenegrin rules apply regardless of the law governing the employment relationship. They are maximum working time and minimum rest, minimum paid annual leave, pay including overtime premiums, the conditions for agency assignment, occupational safety and health, allowances or reimbursement for travel, food and accommodation, the quality of accommodation, protective measures for pregnant workers and young people, and equal treatment of women and men together with the prohibition of discrimination on other grounds.

Two items on that list are the ones most often missed. Reimbursement of travel, food and accommodation costs is due to the posted worker provided a domestic employee would be entitled to it under Montenegrin rules. The quality of accommodation is measured against what a Montenegrin employee working away from the usual place of work is entitled to. Neither provision refers back to conditions in the country the worker comes from.

What the inspectorate asks for on site

Article 75d requires the named person to keep, throughout the posting, at the place of work or another specified and accessible location in Montenegro, and to produce on request of the labour inspectorate, seven documents: a copy of the employment contract or other instrument establishing the employment, the pay calculation showing its components, proof that the pay was paid, working time records, proof of social insurance from the competent authority, occupational safety and health documentation, and the temporary residence and work permit. Translations of those documents are supplied on request.

The named person must hold a certificate of that authorisation and show it to the inspectorate. A practice where the documents stay at the foreign company's head office and the site waits for someone to email them does not satisfy the provision. Penalty ranges, and how these checks combine with the permit check, are set out in our piece on labour inspection and fines.

There is also a narrower route for short jobs. Article 85 allows work of up to 90 days within a one year period on a work registration certificate, and among the listed categories are delivery, installation and servicing of machinery or equipment, capped at 30 continuous days or three months a year with breaks. Anything longer returns to the permit and the posting declaration. The issue procedure is set out in our guide to the temporary residence and work permit, and the wider comparison of employer duties across European corridors in our piece on the employer compliance chain. The scope of our role in files of this kind is set out on the employers page.