New rules for posting of workers effective from 30th July 2020
Hard core conditions:
a) length of work periods and rest periods – left unchanged
b) length of paid holidays – left unchanged
c) remuneration – change
d) occupational health and safety – left unchanged
e) working conditions of pregnant women, mothers until the end of the ninth month after giving birth, breastfeeding women and young people – left unchanged
f) equality of treatment between men and women and the prohibition of discrimination – left unchanged
g) conditions under which a worker can be temporarily assigned, working conditions, including conditions relating to pay and employment conditions of temporarily assigned workers
h) conditions of accommodation provided by employers to workers
i) reimbursement of transportation expenses, reimbursement of accommodation expenses and meal allowance during a business trip or during a trip to the usual place of work in the territory of the Slovak Republic
c) Remuneration
– In Slovakia, there is no legislative concept/term of ‘remuneration’; in this regard, the Directive was transposed by listing explicitly the mandatory wage components pursuant to the Labour Code. In respect of special regulations and generally applicable collective agreements, the term ‘other mandatory wage components’ was retained as it is impossible to predict in the Labour Code which mandatory wage components will be agreed in the relevant generally applicable collective agreement.
– for the purposes of remuneration, the following wage components are considered to be mandatory: minimum wage, minimum wage entitlements, additional pay for overtime work, additional pay for work on a public/state holiday, additional pay for work on Saturday, additional pay for work on Sunday, additional pay for night work, wage compensation for difficult working conditions, other mandatory wage components and holiday pay
– when assessing whether a benefit provided by a foreign employer making the posting (‘hosťujúci zamestnávateľ’ in Slovak) is considered to be wage, Section 118 of the Labour Code shall be applied.
Minimum wage – The minimum wage is set by the Government of the Slovak Republic by regulation as of 1 January each calendar year. For 2024, the minimum wage is set at EUR 4,310 per hour or, as applicable, EUR 750 per month.
Minimum wage entitlements – Where remuneration of workers is not agreed in the collective agreement, an employer is obliged to pay a worker a wage at least in the amount of the minimum wage entitlement applicable to the relevant degree of job difficulty.
The minimum wage is the basis for calculating the minimum wage entitlement of a worker depending on the degree of difficulty assigned to their job by the employer. The rate of the minimum wage entitlement for the relevant degree of difficulty is calculated by multiplying the hourly minimum wage (if the standard weekly working time is 40 hours) or the monthly minimum wage (in the case of an employee paid a monthly wage) established by a special regulation by the corresponding minimum wage coefficient.
Additional pay for work overtime work – An employee working overtime is entitled to the wage earned and additional pay of at least 25 % of the employee’s average earnings An employee working overtime and performing hazardous work is entitled to the wage earned and additional pay of at least 35 % of the employee’s average earnings. If an employer and an employee agree on compensatory leave for overtime work, the employee is entitled to one hour of compensatory leave for one hour of overtime work; in such a case, the employee is not entitled to the additional pay.
Additional pay for work on a public/state holiday – For work on a public holiday, an employee is entitled to the wage earned and additional pay of at least 100 % of the employee’s average earnings. The additional pay is also provided for work performed on a public holiday that falls on the day of the employee’s uninterrupted rest period in a week. If an employer and an employee agree on compensatory leave for work on a public holiday, the employee is entitled to one hour of compensatory leave for one hour worked on a public holiday. In such a case, the employee is not entitled to the additional pay.
Additional pay for work on Saturday – For Saturday work, an employee is entitled, in addition to the wage earned, to additional pay for each hour of Saturday work of at least 50 % of the minimum wage in euros per hour.Where the nature of the work or the operating conditions require that work is regularly performed on Saturdays, employers are permitted to agree a lower amount of additional pay, but not less than 45 % of the minimum wage in euros per hour, in
a) a collective agreement,
b) the employment contract if it is an employer where there is no recognised trade union and the employer had fewer than 20 employees as at 31 December the previous calendar year.
Additional pay for work on Sunday – For Sunday work, an employee is entitled, in addition to the wage earned, to additional pay for each hour of Sunday work of at least 100 % of the minimum wage in euros per hour. here the nature of the work or the operating conditions require that work is regularly performed on Sundays, employers are permitted to agree a lower amount of additional pay, but not less than 90 % of the minimum wage in euros per hour, in
a) a collective agreement,
b) the employment contract if it is an employer where there is no recognised trade union and the employer had fewer than 20 employees as at 31 December the previous calendar year.
Additional pay for night work– For night work, an employee is entitled, in addition to the wage earned, to additional pay for each hour of night work of at least 40 % of the minimum wage in euros per hour and, if it is an employee performing hazardous work, to additional pay of at least 50 % of the minimum wage in euros per hour. Where the nature of the work or the operating conditions require that the majority of work is carried out as night work, employers are permitted to agree a lower amount of additional pay (not with an employee performing hazardous work), but not less than 35 % of the minimum wage in euros per hour pursuant to a special regulation, in
a) a collective agreement,
b) the employment contract if it is an employer where there is no recognised trade union and the employer had fewer than 20 employees as at 31 December the previous calendar year.
Wage compensation for difficult working conditions– An employee is entitled to wage compensation for difficult working conditions when carrying out certain work activities listed
below if such work activities were assigned by the competent public health authority to the 3rd or 4th category and the employee is required, due to the intensity of factors in the workplace environment and despite the technical, organisational and specific protective and preventive measures taken pursuant to specific regulations, to use personal protective equipment to reduce the health risks during the performance of such activities.
Work activities, for which an employee is entitled to wage compensation, are activities in an environment exposed to:
a) chemical factors,
b) carcinogenic and mutagenic factors,
c) biological factors,
d) dust,
e) physical factors (e.g. noise, vibrations, ionising radiation).
For each hour worked, an employee is entitled, in addition to the wage earned, to wage compensation for difficult working conditions of at least 20 % of the minimum wage in euros per hour.
Other mandatory wage components – if agreed in the relevant generally applicable collective agreement
Holiday pay – Employees are entitled to holiday pay in the amount of their average earnings for the time of leave that they take. For the purposes of the labour law, average earnings are calculated by an employer from the wage paid to an employee in the reference period and the time worked by the employee during the reference period. The reference period is the calendar quarter preceding the quarter, in which the average earnings are determined. The average earnings are always determined on the first day of the calendar month following the reference period and are used throughout the quarter. If an employee has not worked at least 21 days or 168 hours in the reference period, their probable earnings are used instead of the average earnings. The probable earnings are determined from the wage actually earned by an employee since the beginning of the reference period or from the wage that they would probably have earned. Average earnings are determined as average hourly earnings.
g) conditions under which a worker can be temporarily assigned, working conditions, including conditions relating to pay and employment conditions of temporarily assigned workers – title TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT – AGENCY WORK
– conditions under which a worker can be temporarily assigned:
Agreement between a worker and an employer/temporary-work agency
A worker and a temporary-work agency conclude an employment contract in which the temporary-work agency undertakes to arrange that the worker is assigned to a user undertaking to work there temporarily and the conditions of employment are agreed. Both parties enter into a written temporary assignment agreement, which must include in particular the name and registered office of the user undertaking, the start date of the temporary assignment, the agreed period of the temporary assignment, the type and the place of work, the wage conditions and the conditions under which the assignment may be terminated unilaterally before the expiry of the agreed period.
Temporary assignments may be agreed for a maximum of 24 months. A temporary assignment of a worker to the same user employer may be extended or renewed 4 times within 24 months as a maximum.
A temporary assignment may not be agreed for work assigned to the 4th category by the competent public health authority.
Agreement between an employer/temporary-work agency and a user undertaking
The agreement between an employer or a temporary-work agency and a user undertaking on the temporary assignment of workers must be concluded in writing, otherwise it is invalid.
An employer or a temporary-work agency may agree with a user undertaking to assign workers who are in an employment relationship. A temporary assignment of workers in an employment relationship may be agreed between an employer and a user undertaking due to objective operational reasons on the employer’s side only and 3 months from the employment commencement date at the earliest.
A temporary assignment agreement concluded between an employer or a temporary-work agency and a user undertaking must contain:
a) name and surname, date and place of birth and permanent residence of the assigned worker,
b) the type of work that the assigned employee will perform, including requirements concerning medical and mental fitness to work and other preconditions according to a special law if they are so required for the type of work concerned,
c) the period for which the temporary assignment has been agreed,
d) place of work performance,
e) the date of commencement of work by the temporarily assigned worker for the user undertaking,
f) working conditions, including conditions relating to pay and employment conditions of the temporarily assigned worker that are no less favourable than those offered to a comparable employee of the user undertaking,
g) the conditions under which a worker or the user undertaking may terminate the assignment before the end of the assignment period,
h) the number and the date of issue of the decision authorising the temporary-work agency to carry out the business of a temporary-work agency.
During the period of assignment, the user undertaking will assign work tasks to the worker on the employer’s or the temporary-work agency’s behalf, organise, manage and control their work, give them instructions, create favourable working conditions and ensure safety and health at work in the same way as in the case of other workers. Executive employees of the user undertaking may not carry out legal acts concerning the assigned worker on behalf of the employer or the temporary-work agency.
A user undertaking may not temporarily assign a worker who has been temporarily assigned to them to another user undertaking.
The user undertaking keeps the employer or the temporary-work agency informed of the working and employment conditions of comparable employees of the user undertaking.
A user undertaking, to which a worker has been assigned by a temporary-work agency, shall
a) inform the temporary agency workers of any vacant posts in the user undertaking to give them the same opportunity as other workers in that undertaking to find permanent employment
b) give the temporary agency workers access to the social services in the user undertaking under the same conditions as workers employed directly by the undertaking, unless prevented from doing so by objective reasons.
c) enable the temporary agency workers the same access to training as the user undertaking’s workers
d) provide suitable information on the use of temporary agency workers when providing information on the employment situation in that undertaking to bodies representing workers.
A user undertaking is obliged to keep records of temporarily assigned workers containing the identification data of each worker, identification data of the employer or temporary-work agency that assigned the worker and the assignment start and end date.
A temporary assignment ends upon the expiry of the agreed assignment period. Before the expiry of this period, the assignment may be terminated by the agreement of the parties or by unilateral termination by a party subject to the agreed conditions.
– working and employment conditions of temporarily assigned workers –
During the assignment, workers are provided with a wage, wage compensation and travel allowances by a temporary employment agency. The working conditions, including conditions relating to pay and employment conditions of temporarily assigned workers shall be at least those that would apply to a comparable employee of the user undertaking, Working and employment conditions are conditions relating to:
a) the duration of working time, breaks, rest periods, overtime, on-call time, night work, holidays and public holidays;
b) pay,
c) occupational health and safety;
d) compensation in the event of accidents at work or occupational diseases,
e) insolvency compensation and the protection of temporary workers’ rights,
f) protection of pregnant women, mothers until the end of the ninth month after giving birth, breastfeeding women, women and men caring for children and young people,
g) the right to collective bargaining,
h) the provision of meals.
In the event that an employer or a temporary-work agency did not pay a temporarily assigned worker a wage that is at least as favourable as that of a comparable employee of the user undertaking, the user undertaking shall, within 15 days of the wage payment date agreed between the employer or the temporary-work agency and the assigned worker, pay the assigned worker such wage or the difference between the wage of a comparable employee of the user undertaking and the wage paid to the worker by their employer or temporary-work agency, after making the applicable deductions.
h) conditions of accommodation
There is no legal regulation in the Slovak Republic addressing this
issue. The application of this provision in Slovakia would be relevant only if the conditions of accommodation were regulated by a representative collective agreement.
i) Travel allowances for business trips
– Pursuant to Section 4(1) of the Act on travel allowances, an employee on a business trip is entitled to:
– documented transportation expenses – letter a),
– documented accommodation expenses – letter b),
– meal allowance – letter c).
Employees are entitled to a meal allowance for each calendar day of a business trip. The amount of the meal allowance is set depending on the duration of the business trip on a calendar day, with the duration divided into time bands
a) 5 to 12 hours – from 1 July 2019: EUR 5.10
b) over 12 and up to 18 hours – from 1 July 2019: EUR 7.60
c) over 18 hours – from 1 July 2019: EUR 11.60
– for the purposes of applying a special regulation (Act No 283/2002 Coll. on travel allowances) or the relevant collective agreement, it is possible also to include reimbursement of transportation expenses, reimbursement of accommodation expenses, meal allowance or other comparable benefits provided by a foreign employer making the posting under the law of the state from which a worker is posted to carry out work as part of the provision of services (the home state of the posted worker).