Posting a worker from Lithuania to a client in another EU country

Some EU countries are close to impossible to hire blue-collar workers into directly. The Netherlands is the clearest example: the GVVA single permit requires a labour-market test proving no Dutch or EU candidate is available, and for drivers, warehousing and production that test is almost never passed.

There is another way in, and it is not a workaround — it is settled EU law. A worker who is lawfully employed in one member state can be posted to provide a service in another, and a third-country national in that position does not need a work permit in the destination state.

The principle

This comes from the Court of Justice's Vander Elst line of cases. If a company established in member state A employs a worker lawfully and habitually, and that company provides a service in member state B, the worker can be posted there without B requiring its own work permit. The worker's right to be there flows from the employer's freedom to provide services across the single market.

In practice, for us, that means a driver or a tradesperson employed by our partner entity in Lithuania — holding a Lithuanian residence permit and genuinely on that payroll — carrying out a service contract for a client in the Netherlands or Germany. Typical lead time is six to ten weeks, against sixteen or more for a Dutch GVVA that will probably be refused anyway.

What makes it lawful, and what makes it not

The distinction that matters is between providing a service and supplying a person.

A genuine posting has a service contract with a defined scope, the worker stays employed and paid by the Lithuanian entity, the Lithuanian entity keeps the employment relationship and directs the work within that contract, and the arrangement is temporary and tied to the assignment.

What it is not is a permanent placement in a Dutch or German company wearing a service contract as a costume. If the worker is integrated into the client's workforce indefinitely, taking day-to-day instruction like an employee, with the arrangement having no end, then it is not a posting and treating it as one is a real risk — to the client as much as to the agency.

The compliance that comes with it

Posting is permitted, not unregulated. The obligations are substantial and they fall on both sides.

The posting must be notified to the destination state before it starts — in the Netherlands through the WagwEU notification. The worker must receive the destination country's minimum terms: minimum wage, working time, rest, holiday and health and safety rules, which for a posting to the Netherlands or Germany usually means more than the Lithuanian minimum. A1 social security documentation must be in place. Documents must be kept available for inspection in the destination country, often in its language. And sector rules apply on top — for road transport, the specific posting rules for drivers.

Enforcement in both countries is active, and the penalties land on the client too. Anyone offering you posted workers without mentioning any of this is offering you an inspection.

When it is the right answer

For temporary peaks, defined projects and countries where direct hiring is effectively closed to your roles, it is often the only route that works. For a permanent vacancy in a country where you can hire directly, it is the wrong tool — hire directly.

Two honest caveats

First, it is more work, not less. The permit is avoided; the compliance is not.

Second, we confirm eligibility case by case and we do say no. If the arrangement you want looks like a permanent placement, we will tell you that rather than paper over it, because the cost of getting this wrong lands on you.

If you have a defined piece of work in the Netherlands or Germany and cannot fill it locally, describe it to us and we will tell you whether posting genuinely fits.