What is a A1 or PDA1 Certificate? Obligations and requirements

The A1 or PDA1 certificate shows which national Social Security and Labour Law legislations a worker is subject to, that is, that apply to the worker.  The A1 or PDA1 certificate is issued by the Social Security institution where the worker habitually resides (the sending country).  It is a fundamental document within the context of intra-EU posting or worker mobility within the EU and EEA.

All workers legally employed in country “A” by a TWA that are temporarily seconded or leased to a client (user undertaking) in country “B” must possess an A1 certificate or prove that it has been requested. Mere proof or request is considered satisfactory (or sufficient) for up to 3 months after the workers have been leased by almost all the Labour Inspection Authorities within the EU and EEA.  This tolerance period is provided because many of the Social Security institutions within the EU and EEA only issue the A1 certificates several weeks or months after they have been requested by the TWA established in another EU or EEA country. (Note: Portugal´s Social Security body is actually better than most in this regard).

Not all clients (user undertakings) in the host (or, receiving) countries aware of the existence and/or the importance of the A1 certificate, but those that are refuse to work with foreign TWAs unable or unwilling to provide these certificates (or, at least, proof of request) within a reasonable period of time.

Why do clients (user undertakings) in the host (or, receiving) countries consider the A1 certificates so tremendously important?  Because they want to be certain that the workers that have been leased to them are, in fact, legally employed by the TWA established in another EU or EEA country,  also they want to be certain that the workers were authorized to be temporary deployed, don´t want to be at risk of having to pay social security contributions, wage tax to their own national authorities, don´t want to risk committing infractions and paying heavy fines and are aware they may also have to pay the salaries of the leased workers if the TWA established in the other EU or EEA member state fails to do so – which is always a possibility if the workers have not been legally employed.

As one can see, the A1 certificate serves for many purposes. It greatly safeguards the client (user undertaking) that leases the worker from a TWA established in another EU or EEA member state from enormous risks.

A TWA established in Portugal that does not possess a license to engage in temporary employment activities is NOT eligible to receive A1s.

The TWA license (in Portuguese, “alvará”) must be uploaded to Social Security´s web portal for each individual A1 certificate that is submitted. Failure to so will inevitably result in rejection of the request.

Below, a caption of the Portuguese Social Security web platform. Shown are the documents that must be uploaded when submitting a request for an A1 certificate – the permit (=license) is one of the documents required. As one can observe, in Portugal, the process of requesting and obtaining an A1 certificate is no stroll in the park – it is considerably demanding.

Although a TWA established in Portugal that does NOT possess an active permit (or license) in good standing will, under no circumstances, be issued an A1 certificate, technically, they can APPLY for one by uploading one or several dummy or fake documents (one of them would be the permit).

They can then download a proof of request form and show it their client (user undertaking) outside Portugal to convince them that the A1 certificates are being processed and will eventually be issued.

It is, of course, a dirty trick. The TWA established in Portugal is knowingly deceiving their foreign client. They are well aware that the request for an A1 certificate will be rejected, but submitting a request using dummy documents allows it to provide fake assurance to the client and carry on with business for as long as they can keep the fraud alive.

The client in another EU or EEA country (user undertaking) that has leased workers from the TWA established in Portugal is completely unaware that they are under tremendous risk. But, lack of knowledge will not shield them for suffering the consequences if they are questioned by subject to inspection by the authorities – which can happen up to 5 years after the deployment has ended.

Below, you can check a caption of a Portuguese proof of request form (machine translated from original in Portuguese:

Of course, A1 documents can also be doctored.

So, in reality, there is no way to completely eliminate risk, the best that can be done is to minimize it.  Well, there are ways to virtually eliminate risk. 

Although, if you have an A1 certificate and would like to check the legitimacy of the document, you can find all the information required here. Also, if you wish, you can learn about all the considerations to have before applying for the A1 Certificate. 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us anytime you desire.