Employment and social-affairs ministers meeting in Brussels on 9 March 2026 put labour mobility back under the spotlight, adding a last-minute ‘Any Other Business’ item entitled “Legal clarity on the posting of third-country nationals.” The Cypriot presidency tabled the discussion after several member states, including Poland and Germany, reported a sharp rise in non-EU workers being subcontracted across borders under temporary-service contracts.
![EU Ministers Debate Posting of Third-Country Nationals at EPSCO Council]()
For employers scrambling to keep pace with these changing compliance expectations, VisaHQ’s Poland portal (https://www.visahq.com/poland/) offers a practical shortcut. The platform streamlines work-permit applications, monitors authorisation expiry dates, and exports IMI-compatible data files—giving HR teams extra assurance that every third-country national posted abroad is properly cleared before departure.
Poland’s Labour Minister Katarzyna Nowak argued that existing rules leave gaps that unscrupulous intermediaries exploit, under-cutting wages and complicating immigration checks. Warsaw wants a clear reference in the Posting of Workers Directive stating that third-country nationals must hold a valid work authorisation in the ‘sending’ state before they can be posted elsewhere in the EU, plus an obligation for real-time data exchange via the Internal Market Information (IMI) system. Several delegations backed the idea of tying posting compliance to the upcoming EU Talent Pool, so that authorised profiles can be flagged automatically, reducing document fraud at Polish and other border crossings. The Commission promised guidance by June and did not rule out legislative amendments if abuses persist, a statement welcomed by Poland’s construction and logistics associations that face steep fines when supply-chain partners break the rules. For corporate mobility teams the take-away is clear: expect stricter audit trails for posted staff and begin aligning HRIS systems with IMI data fields now. Companies operating multi-country projects out of Polish hubs should review vendor contracts to ensure sub-contractors meet the ‘authorised in country A before posting to country B’ standard likely to come.
For employers scrambling to keep pace with these changing compliance expectations, VisaHQ’s Poland portal (https://www.visahq.com/poland/) offers a practical shortcut. The platform streamlines work-permit applications, monitors authorisation expiry dates, and exports IMI-compatible data files—giving HR teams extra assurance that every third-country national posted abroad is properly cleared before departure.
Poland’s Labour Minister Katarzyna Nowak argued that existing rules leave gaps that unscrupulous intermediaries exploit, under-cutting wages and complicating immigration checks. Warsaw wants a clear reference in the Posting of Workers Directive stating that third-country nationals must hold a valid work authorisation in the ‘sending’ state before they can be posted elsewhere in the EU, plus an obligation for real-time data exchange via the Internal Market Information (IMI) system. Several delegations backed the idea of tying posting compliance to the upcoming EU Talent Pool, so that authorised profiles can be flagged automatically, reducing document fraud at Polish and other border crossings. The Commission promised guidance by June and did not rule out legislative amendments if abuses persist, a statement welcomed by Poland’s construction and logistics associations that face steep fines when supply-chain partners break the rules. For corporate mobility teams the take-away is clear: expect stricter audit trails for posted staff and begin aligning HRIS systems with IMI data fields now. Companies operating multi-country projects out of Polish hubs should review vendor contracts to ensure sub-contractors meet the ‘authorised in country A before posting to country B’ standard likely to come.
