If you come to Finland to work temporarily and are employed by a foreign employer while working here, you may be considered a posted worker. In general, as a posted worker, you will remain insured in your country of residence while working in Finland. This means you accrue pension in your country of residence, not in Finland.
Whether or not you are considered a posted worker while working in Finland, and which country you are insured in, depends on the sending country. At the bottom of this page, you will find a list of EU and EEA countries, social security agreement countries and non-agreement countries.
Posted worker from an EU country
If you are a posted worker coming to Finland to work from an EU country, your employer must apply for and get an A1 certificate from the authorities in its domicile country. Based on this certificate, your employer will insure you in the country that issued the A1 certificate, that is, your employer’s domicile country and pay your statutory insurance contributions there. The A1 certificate confirms that you are covered by the social security system of your employer’s domicile country. This means, for example, that your pension will accrue there.
If your employer has not applied for an A1 certificate or you have not been granted the certificate, your employer must insure you in Finland for the period you work here.
Example: A French employee
A French employer posts its employee who usually works in France to Finland to work here for a year. Before coming to Finland, the employee was insured in France. The employer has applied for an A1 certificate for the employee from France. The employee is not to be insured in Finland. Instead, the French employer pays all statutory social insurance contributions in France according to French legislation. The employee is covered by French social security.
Employee posted from a social security agreement country
If you come from a social security agreement country to Finland to work temporarily and are employed by a foreign employer while working here, you may be considered a posted worker. If you have a certificate issued by the authorities in your country of residence, both you and your employer will be released from the obligation to pay pension contributions in Finland.
Whether you must pay other statutory social security contributions in your country of residence or in Finland depends on the content of the social security agreement. It is your employer’s responsibility to sort out which payments arising from your work in Finland should be made in each country.
If you are employed by a Finnish company when you work in Finland, your employer must pay all the statutory social insurance relating to your work in Finland.
Example: a Japanese employee
A Japanese employer posts its employee who usually works in Japan to Finland to work here for three years. Finland and Japan have a bilateral social security agreement that applies to earnings-related pension insurance and unemployment insurance . The employer applies for a certificate for a posted worker (the JP/FI 1 certificate) from Japan. The employer must pay the pension and unemployment insurance contributions in Japan according to Japanese legislation. The employer must find out which other Finnish statutory social security contributions must be paid in the country where the work is done (Finland) and pay them here.
Posted worker from a non-agreement country
If you come to Finland from a non-agreement country, that is, a country that does not have a social security agreement with Finland and you will work here temporarily for a foreign employer, you may be considered a posted worker. Your employer pays your pension insurance in the country from which you were sent to work in Finland i f you will work here for less than two years.
As you are released from the insurance obligation only as far as the earnings-related pension is concerned, your employer must find out whether your other statutory social insurance contributions must be paid in Finland.
If you were covered by social security in Finland or another EU country at the start of your employment in Finland, your employer must also take out earnings-related pension insurance for you in Finland from the outset.
Example: A Brazilian employee
A Brazilian employer posts its employee who usually works in Brazil to work in Finland. The employee is assigned to the Finnish subsidiary of the employer’s group for a period of 11 months. The employee is insured for an earnings-related pension in Finland. The employer must find out which other Finnish statutory social security contributions must be paid and pays them in Finland.
EU countries’ refers to the following countries:
- EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
- EEA countries: Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.
- Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Social security agreement countries:
- Australia, Canada, Chile, China, India, Israel, Japan, Quebec, South Korea, and the United States of America.
Non-agreement countries:
- Non-agreement countries are countries other than those listed above, such as Thailand, Brazil or South Africa.
Read more about insuring a posted worker on the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ website (Etk.fi