Covid-19 pandemic obliged non-essential services companies to quickly adapt to a telework policy for all employees.  

This posed problems for cross-border workers, since according to the European regulation on social security coordination, they should not work more than 25% of the time outside the country of work not to be subjected to the social security legislation and contribution in the country of residence. 

The French government signed an agreement with Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland to temporarily adapt the social security legislation so that teleworking in the country of residence is not considered as the new country of work. Therefore, the relevant social security legislation would not change for cross-border employees.  

The exception to the European rules was extended until the end of 2020 for workers crossing the Swiss border. 

Similar agreements were signed by other European countries with their neighbouring countries.  For instance, the agreement between Luxembourg and Belgium established that “days worked at home solely because of measures taken to combat the Covid-19 pandemic by the Belgian or Luxembourg Governments may be considered as having been worked in the state in which the cross-border worker would have been employed if those measures had not been in place.”