Posted workers

During the workers‘ posting periods in Iceland, Icelandic legislation applies to their terms of service. This includes the Working Terms and Pension Rights Insurance Act, No. 55/1980, with regards to minimum wages and other wage-related issues, overtime payments, the right to vacation pay, maximum working hours and minimum rest periods. The Act stipulates that wages and other terms of service negotiated by the social partners are to be minimum terms. Thus, Icelandic collective agreements lay down minimum terms for foreign workers who are posted to Iceland on a temporary basis during the period that they work in Iceland. Furthermore, these workers are entitled to wages during absence from work due to illness and in consequence of accidents while they are working in Iceland in connection with the provision of services.

• In order to ensure that foreign workers’ terms of service are in accordance with Icelandic collective agreements during the periods in which they work in Iceland, the Administration of Occuptaional Safety and Health requests that copies of the employment contracts of workers posted in Iceland be submitted.

Terms of service and entitlement to sick leave are not, on the other hand, required to be in accordance with Icelandic legislation in the case of the first assembly and/or first installation of a product, which forms part of a contract on the provision of the product and is necessary in order to begin using the product, and is carried out by professional or specialist employees of the company, if the period during which the worker is in Iceland does not exceed eight days.

If a company provides a service in Iceland for a total of more than four weeks in any twelve months, it shall have a representative in Iceland. The representative may be one of the company’s workers who are posted temporarily in Iceland. It shall not be necessary to nominate a representative if fewer than six workers are normally working in Iceland under the company’s auspices. The company’s representative shall represent it and be responsible for providing the authorities with information according to Act No. 45/2007.

A user undertaking that employs the services of a foreign service company shall be obliged to request a written confirmation that it has fulfilled its duty to provide information to The Administration of Occupational Safety and Health. If the service company does not comply with the user undertaking’s request. The Administration of Occuptional Safety and Health shall be notified of this, and shall also provide information on the company’s name, the name of its official representative, its address in its home state and the type of service being provided.