Estonia Employment Register
National employment registration has been shown to help reduce the use of illegal workers and improve worker protection. Consolidating employee information into a single electronic register also increases visibility for tax collections while reducing the administrative burdens and costs for employers and numerous government agencies using employment data. CGI was able to quickly deliver and integrate an employment register for the Estonian Tax and Customs Board (Board) in response to a new law.
The Challenge
On March 26, 2014, amendments to the Estonian Taxation Act authorized the creation of a national register of employees and their employment information. The goals for the register were to reduce the use of illegal and unaccounted workers, improve protection of workers’ social rights, better regulate citizens’ social benefits, and increase visibility for labor tax supervision. Starting July 1, 2014, the law required that employers register all persons they employ or intend to employ in Estonia. The biggest challenge for the Board was creating and launching this new register in such a very tight timeframe.
The Solution
The Board chose CGI to develop the electronic register based on the company’s proven experience in developing mission-critical applications for governments and for offering the most innovative solution. The CGI solution, which went live on-time on July 1, enables employers across Estonia to easily register all employees with the Board prior to an employee starting work in Estonia.
The electronic solution eliminates the need for in-person visits to a service bureau for registration. Registration can now occur in a variety of ways:
- Web registration through the e-Tax Board/e-Customs websites by entering data manually or uploading a file
- Registration via a machine-to-machine (M2M) interface, using XRoad technology, the standard for integrating public registers and information systems in Estonia
- Mobile registration via a phone call or SMS message.
Key Benefits
- Enhances surveillance related to labor taxes
- Reduces administration and saves costs
- Enables faster and efficient verification of employment
- Helps increase tax collections
- Enables digital processes and a paper-free procedure
- Eliminates the need for employers to submit employee data to multiple government agencies
- Allows multiple agencies to share information, eliminating duplication
