Who notifies in the case of subcontracting?

Subcontracting is when an employer abroad or self-employed person contracts a third company or self-employed person to carry out a posting or assignment for their service recipient in the Netherlands.

For example: French employer A builds a bridge for Dutch service recipient B, and contracts a third company C from Germany to carry out the welding work on the bridge in the Netherlands. Each employer must notify their own personnel. First, French company A notifies its workers who will go to work in the Netherlands, and Dutch company B must review the notification. In addition, the third company C in Germany must notifies its workers who will work in the Netherlands. Because German company C has a contract with French company A, French company A is now regarded as the service recipient. This is because German company C is delivering its services to French company A, despite the fact that the personnel are sent to Dutch company B. It is therefore French company A that reviews the notification of German company C. In this way, French company A is both the employer abroad and the service recipient. In short:

• as an employer abroad (service provider), each company notifies its own workers;
• if the sub-contractor is a self-employed person with a duty to notify, the self-employed person notifies himself/herself;
• the service recipient is the company that has a contract with the employer abroad or the self-employed person. Thus in subcontracting, this can also be a foreign company, even where it concerns work to be carried out in the Netherlands. This foreign company is obliged to review the notification.