Cross-border Telework Between France and Switzerland: Practical Issues, Good Practices and Possible Solutions

The seminar was organised by MoveS in collaboration with its Swiss national expert, Bettina Hummer and French national expert Jean-Philippe Lhernould. MoveS is an EC-funded network of independent experts from 32 European countries coordinated by Eftheia and Deloitte.

The number of frontier workers residing in France and working in Switzerland is very high. It amounts to nearly 300,000, one third of them working in the secondary sector whereas two third performing their activities in the service sector. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, telework has become very popular in the FR-CH area for all activities which can be performed remotely. This new form of work organisation raises several practical issues relating to social security, in particular in relation to healthcare coverage, unemployment benefits and family benefits. The country of affiliation of cross-border teleworkers raises many questions for employers, for employees and for the social security institutions. Where should social security contributions be paid? Is there a risk of change of applicable legislation? Will telework create new social security rights for workers or will it make their everyday life more complex? To what extent can employers avoid the change of applicable legislation? The seminar looked at the various issues from a practical perspective. Local authorities from both countries, practice lawyers, representatives of frontier employees and of employers as well as researchers were invited to share their views, their good practices and solutions.