“The proportion of employees who telework several times a week falls drastically among cross-border commuters: it reaches 3% among French residents (down 20 points in three years), 4% for employees living in Germany and 2% for Belgian commuters, i.e., an average of 3%,” says the Fondation Idea in a note devoted to the teleworking situation in the country, five years after the outbreak of the covid crisis.

“Conversely, just as many Luxembourg residents telework several times a week in 2024 as in 2021 (21%), after a slight decrease in 2023 (19%),” states the , which was published on Wednesday 26 March.

Opposite trajectories

The curves have actually crossed since 2021, the first post-covid year, when 23% of French cross-border commuters, 17% of Germans and 15% of Belgians teleworked several times a week, compared with 21% of Luxembourg residents.

“If the intensity of teleworking several times a week had developed in the same way as for residents, 45,000 cross-border commuters could telework several times a week, compared with only 6,800 who actually do so, i.e., seven times less than the reasonably estimated ‘potential,’” says the report.

The think tank estimates that among cross-border commuters, “around 53% of jobs are theoretically teleworkable.” It notes: “During the pandemic, the gap between ‘theoretical’ and actual practice was more or less the same as among residents, with 37% of cross-border commuters teleworking regularly in 2020-2021.”

“Since 2021, on the other hand, the practice of teleworking has fallen sharply in this group, and despite a slight upturn recently, it remains well below that of residents (22% versus 40%). If the rate of frequent teleworking had developed in the same way among cross-border commuters as among residents since the end of the pandemic, 27,200 more people would be teleworking frequently today. This shortfall illustrates the impact of the specific constraints weighing on the latter and slowing down their adoption of remote working.”

Franco-Swiss model

“Given the fiscal and economic issues involved in developing teleworking in a cross-border context, the road to removing the obstacles to telework is still a winding one. It is therefore relevant to analyse schemes already in place in other cross-border configurations,” explains the Fondation Idea.

“An example often cited is the agreement between France and Switzerland signed on 27 June 2023, which provides a framework for the taxation of teleworking by cross-border workers. In particular, this agreement provides for a threshold of 40% teleworking per year before triggering taxation in the state of residence and financial compensation of 40% of gross salaries linked to teleworking paid by the country where the cross-border worker is normally taxed. France has proposed ,” the foundation concludes. “Such a measure could have significant implications for both the Luxembourg economy and cross-border workers, with advantages and disadvantages to be considered.”

This article was originally published in .