article by
Tanel Feldman
Senior Partner at Immigration Law Associates
EU Labour and Employment Law-Immigration Partner
CORPORATE MIGRATION CENTER
Expert in Intra-EU Labour Mobility, with a special focus on the Posting/Secondment of Workers
Qualified workers may be difficult to find in one European country while remaining available in another. Cross-border temporary agency work can help businesses access this workforce, but its use is subject to specific legal conditions.
Labour shortages do not affect all European countries equally
A manufacturing company struggling to find qualified welders or machine operators may discover that workers with the required skills are available in another European country.
The European Labour Authority’s 2025 report on labour shortages and surpluses, published in June 2026, confirms that labour market imbalances remain widespread across Europe. Certain occupations experiencing shortages in one country may show surpluses in another.
These differences create opportunities for cross-border labour mobility, including the temporary supply of workers by agencies established in other EU Member States.
However, the existence of a labour shortage does not, in itself, determine whether temporary agency workers may lawfully be used.
Labour shortages and the permitted use of temporary agency workers
Temporary agency work is a recognised form of employment under EU law. However, Member States retain national rules governing the circumstances in which user undertakings may make use of temporary agency workers.
Depending on the Member State, these restrictions may concern the legally permitted reasons for using temporary agency workers, such as replacing absent employees or responding to a temporary increase in workload, the maximum duration of assignments, successive assignments or the proportion of agency workers within a company.
This distinction is particularly important when labour shortages are structural rather than temporary.
A company may experience persistent difficulties recruiting permanent employees. However, this does not necessarily justify the use of temporary agency workers where national law restricts agency work to particular circumstances.
Similarly, dividing a long assignment into several shorter assignments does not circumvent the applicable rules on maximum assignment duration.
Before engaging a foreign temporary work agency, the user undertaking must therefore verify whether its particular staffing needs justify the use of temporary agency workers under the applicable national law and which conditions must be respected.
Does engaging an agency established abroad change the rules?
A temporary work agency established in one EU Member State may, subject to the applicable requirements, supply workers to a user undertaking in another Member State.
However, the cross-border nature of the arrangement does not exempt the user undertaking from the national rules governing temporary agency work.
For example, where the destination country restricts the use of agency workers to certain permitted circumstances, those restrictions must also be considered when the workers are supplied by a foreign agency.
In addition, the foreign temporary work agency may need to comply with national licensing, registration or equivalent requirements before supplying workers in the destination country.
The arrangement must also comply with the rules on posting of workers, including applicable remuneration and working conditions, notification requirements and social security documentation.
The responsibilities of the agency and the user undertaking are not necessarily identical. Both parties must therefore understand their respective obligations before the assignment begins.
What about third-country nationals employed by an EU temporary work agency?
In principle, the cross-border hiring-out of third-country nationals legally employed by a temporary work agency established in an EU Member State benefits from the same freedom to provide services as the hiring-out of EU nationals.
Under the Vander Elst principle, a host Member State cannot systematically require a separate work permit for third-country nationals lawfully employed by a service provider established in another Member State, provided the relevant conditions are satisfied.
However, the practical application of this principle remains problematic.
Some Member States impose particular conditions on its application to temporary agency work, while others do not effectively recognise its application to such arrangements. In certain countries, administrative practice may also differ from national legislation, even where that legislation correctly reflects EU law and the case law of the Court of Justice.
Residence requirements present an additional difficulty. Where a posting involves a stay exceeding 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area outside the Member State that issued the worker’s residence permit, the worker must comply with the applicable host-country residence procedures. These may involve substantial administrative requirements and processing delays.
Consequently, the feasibility of hiring out third-country nationals across borders must be assessed not only against EU law, but also against the legislation and administrative practice of the destination country.
Availability is only one part of the assessment
Beyond the applicable legal requirements, practical considerations also play an important role.
The agency must be able to identify workers with the required qualifications, experience and, where necessary, language skills.
The duration and location of the assignment, accommodation arrangements and other related costs may influence whether the proposed deployment is feasible.
Remuneration must comply with the applicable rules, notably the equal treatment requirement governing temporary agency work.
For the user undertaking, the cost is generally reflected in the hourly rate invoiced by the temporary work agency. This rate must cover the workers’ remuneration, accommodation and travel expenses, any applicable taxes, immigration and other administrative costs, as well as the agency’s margin.
Cross-border temporary agency work should therefore be considered primarily as a means of temporarily accessing qualified workers who are not readily available locally, rather than as a way of reducing labour costs. However, the shortage of locally available workers does not, in itself, necessarily constitute a legally permitted reason for using temporary agency workers. The user undertaking must also satisfy the conditions laid down by the applicable national law.
A useful solution, within its legal limits
Cross-border temporary agency work can help businesses respond to staffing difficulties by providing access to workers available elsewhere in Europe.
It may be particularly useful where companies face temporary increases in activity, need to replace absent employees or have other staffing requirements for which national law permits the use of agency workers.
However, structural labour shortages and the legally permitted use of temporary agency workers are not necessarily the same question.
The practical value of cross-border temporary agency work depends on two conditions: the availability of suitable workers and the possibility of using them lawfully under the rules of the destination country.
Both should be assessed before an assignment is organised.