If you are an Italian company and have sent employees to a construction site in Germany, it is very likely that you will receive a letter from the German Construction Fund (Soka-Bau) informing you that you are subject to the obligation to pay contributions. It should be observed that not all cases meet the requirements for being subject to the contributions of the German Construction Fund (Soka-Bau).

As a preliminary point, it should be noted that under German law a variety of installation activities fall within the scope of construction services under German law, so each case must be evaluated according to German regulatory provisions, including the construction regulations “Baubetriebe-Verordnung” of Oct. 28, 1980.

Consequently, the German Construction Fund (Soka-Bau) checks whether all the requirements are met to make the employer subject to the obligation to pay contributions. If there is an obligation, the German Construction Fund (Soka-Bau) requires a contribution from the employer to guarantee the workers’ vacation; any paid vacation granted in the period of posting or in the period immediately following can be deducted by the employer (however, there are many cases in which the contribution paid is substantially lost, if, for example, the workers’ vacation is granted only months after the end of the posting).

For these reasons, it is important to consider the possibility of obtaining an exemption from this obligation to join the German Construction Fund (Soka-Bau) if the predominant activity carried out by the company is not of a construction nature. For example, a company operating in the engineering industry that performs, as a secondary activity, the assembly and installation of facilities could be excluded from the scope of the collective agreement. For this purpose, the entire activity of the company must be taken into account, thus not only the activity carried out in Germany, as German case law recently clarified.

In order to prepare a letter to be sent to the German Construction Fund (Soka-Bau) requesting exemption from the obligation to pay contributions, it is usually necessary to submit an excerpt from the commercial register, the contract documents, any evidence of membership in professional associations other than the construction industry and an exemption from the obligation to pay contributions to the Italian Construction Fund (Cassa edile).

For any needs, you may contact our lawyer Martin Cordella (m.cordella@dolce.de).