When the Duty of Care Crosses a Border: What Companies Owe Staff Sent Abroad

Companies preparing to post employees overseas tend to fixate on contracts, tax rules and social-security contributions. Safety and the employer's duty of care toward the people being sent often fall by the wayside.

Yet those obligations do not stop at the national border. Whether the arrangement is a transfer, a temporary posting or a permanent relocation, employers remain answerable for their staff's wellbeing, according to a report published by the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore on 25 October 2026.

A gap in the rulebook

The legal difficulty starts with the regulations themselves. Italy's consolidated workplace safety law, the so-called Einheitstext Dlgs 81/2008, contains no specific provisions setting out working conditions and protective measures for assignments abroad.

So the binding force on companies comes not from narrowly drawn special rules but from the employer's fundamental duty of care, anchored in Article 2087 of the Italian Civil Code (Codice civile). That article obliges employers broadly to take every measure necessary to protect the physical integrity and moral personality of their workers — a principle that, in legal interpretation, applies in full to cross-border assignments as well.

When the rulebook is silent, the employer's duty of care is what counts — and that duty is only as strong as the documentation behind it. A free toolkit provides 41 ready-to-use risk assessment templates and checklists so you can show, in writing, that hazards were identified and controls put in place. Download the free Risk Assessment Toolkit

Assessing the host country before anyone boards a plane

For internationally active businesses, this translates into concrete organisational work. Before staff are sent out, the specific risk profile of the destination country must be assessed in depth. Beyond general workplace hazards, that review covers local security conditions, health risks and the infrastructure of the host country.

Failures in preparation and organisation can carry serious consequences for senior management. As legal specialists stress, a robust corporate organisational structure is decisive for warding off company liability under the provisions of Law 231, which governs the administrative and criminal responsibility of legal entities when executives breach their duties.

Firms must be able to demonstrate that they put suitable prevention models in place and actively managed their duty of care for the overseas assignment.

Demonstrating a robust organisational structure is easier when the core safety documents are already in place. A free Health & Safety Toolkit gives you risk assessments, checklists and toolbox talks covering the essentials — from fire safety and PPE to first aid — so your prevention model stands up to scrutiny. Get the free Health & Safety Toolkit