On October 4, 2022, the National Council of the Slovak Republic approved a draft law amending and supplementing Act No. 311/2001 Coll. Labor Code, as amended, and amending and supplementing certain laws. The amendment introduces numerous and significant changes to the Labor Code that affect several rights and obligations of employers when establishing, changing, and terminating employment relationships. The changes will also affect the posting of employees, work performed under agreements outside of employment relationships, and introduce a new institution of paternity leave. As part of the supplementary proposals during the legislative process, an amendment was also proposed to the right of a trade union operating at an employer to approach an employee in an appropriate manner to offer them membership. The originally intended date of entry into force of the amendment (October 1, 2022) has been postponed, and the amended version of the Labor Code will enter into force on November 1, 2022. In the second article, we will take a closer look at the other changes brought about by the amendment. We are also preparing a free webinar on the amendment to the Labor Code on November 30, 2022—you can find more information at the end of this article.
Contents of the article:
- Severance pay and severance allowance
- Agreements on work performed outside the employment relationship
Fixed-term employment
In general, the employer and employee may agree on a probationary period even in the case of fixed-term employment. As a rule, the probationary period may not exceed three months, but in the case of fixed-term employment in particular, the length of the probationary period is not commensurate with the expected duration of the contract and the nature of the work. In order to ensure that the probationary period is proportionate to the duration of the fixed-term employment relationship, it is proposed to introduce a new provision on the probationary period, under which an employee with a fixed-term employment relationship may not be agreed a probationary period longer than half of the agreed duration of the employment relationship, without prejudice to the provisions of Section 45(1) of the Labor Code.
In order to ensure a more secure form of employment, an employee with a fixed-term employment relationship or a part-time employment relationship lasting longer than six months and whose probationary period has expired if agreed, request the employer to transfer them to an employment relationship for an indefinite period or to a fixed weekly working time. The employer is obliged to provide the employee with a written reasoned response within one month of the date of submission of the request. This obligation of the employer also applies to any subsequent request made by the employee at the earliest 12 months after the previous request was submitted. An employer who is a natural person and an employer who employs fewer than 50 employees is obliged to respond to an employee's request for a transfer to another form of employment within three months of the date of receipt of the request and, in the event of a repeated request, may provide a response in oral form if the reasons for the response have not changed.
Severance pay and retirement benefits
In connection with certain controversial issues in application practice, the legislator has decided to clarify the right of employees (or their survivors) to severance pay and retirement benefits. If an employee dies before the end of the notice period or before the agreed date of termination of employment, the date of death of the employee shall be considered the date of termination of employment by notice or agreement for the purposes of severance pay. Similarly, if an employee dies, the date of death of the employee shall be considered the date of termination of employment for the purposes of entitlement to severance pay.
Posting of employees
The new provision of Section 54b of the Labor Code regulates changes in working conditions and terms of employment due to posting to perform work in the provision of services in the territory of another Member State of the European Union. This is a transfer of the legal regulation contained in the current provision of Section 5 of the Labor Code, supplemented in accordance with the requirements arising from the European Directive.
If a domestic employee is to be posted by a domestic employer to perform work in the provision of services from the territory of the Slovak Republic to the territory of another Member State of the European Union, the domestic employer shall conclude a posting agreement with the domestic employee, in which it shall agree in particular on:
- the start and end dates of the posting,
- the type of work to be performed during the posting and a brief description thereof,
- the place of work during the posting,
- the terms and conditions of remuneration during the posting.
In connection with the posting of employees, the amendment to the Labor Code introduces an obligation for the employer to provide the domestic employee with written information before the start of the posting, at least to the extent of the following information, if not included in the employment contract, posting agreement or written information pursuant to § 47a(1):
- information on the working conditions and terms of employment applicable during the posting pursuant to § 5(13) to the extent of the information pursuant to § 47a(1),
- information on the reimbursement of travel expenses, accommodation and meal expenses or other reimbursement of expenses relating to the posting,
- information pursuant to Section 44a(2),
- a reference to the official website published by the Member State of the European Union to whose territory the domestic employee is posted, which contains information on the working conditions and terms of employment applicable to employees posted to its territory
In the case of posting, the information must be provided only to the extent that it differs from the information received by the employee in the context of Slovak law, i.e. in accordance with the provisions of Section 47a.
If the period of posting in an individual case does not exceed four consecutive weeks, the employer is not obliged to inform the employee in writing of the information referred to in points (b) to (d).
Agreements on work performed outside an employment relationship
If the average weekly working time exceeds three hours in a period of four consecutive weeks, the provisions of Section 43(1)(b) shall apply mutatis mutandis to the employment relationship based on agreements on work performed outside the employment relationship:
- § 43(1)(b) = the employer's obligation to agree with the employee in the employment contract on the place of work (municipality, part of a municipality or other specified place) or places of work, if there are several, or the rule that the place of work is determined by the employee
- § 44a(2) to (5) = employer's obligations relating to work performed outside the territory of the Slovak Republic
- § 47a(1)(a) and (d) and (2) to (5) = information on working conditions and terms of employment
- § 54b (2) to (5) = information obligations relating to the posting of employees
One of the fundamental objectives of the European Directive is to increase transparency and predictability in employment relationships where the organization of work is completely or predominantly unpredictable. In the Slovak legal system, such employment relationships are based on agreements on work performed outside of an employment relationship. For this reason, the legislator proposes to introduce a new provision, Section 223a, regulating the rules for minimum predictability of work.
If, when scheduling work, the employer proceeds on the basis of Section 90(4) 4, according to which the start and end of working time and the schedule of work shifts shall be determined by the employer in agreement with the employees' representatives and notified in writing at the employer's premises accessible to the employee, and paragraph 9) governing the employer's obligation to notify the employee of the work schedule at least one week in advance and with effect for at least one week, an employee performing work under an agreement on work performed outside the employment relationship shall receive relevant information on the work schedule. This also applies if the employer agrees with the employee that the employee will schedule their own working time.
If the employer does not do so, they will now be required to provide the employee with written information on:
- the days and periods during which the employee may be required to work,
- the period within which the employee must be informed of the performance of work before it begins, which may not be less than 24 hours.
At the same time, the employee will not be obliged to perform work if the employer requires the performance of work on a day other than that notified in writing.
New right of trade unions
The committees of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, which discussed the proposed amendment to the Labor Code in their joint report, submitted a proposal to add a new provision (Section 230b) to the Labor Code, which would regulate the right of a trade union operating at an employer to approach an employee in an appropriate manner to offer them membership. The manner of such approach should be subject to agreement with the employer, but if no agreement is reached, the employer would be obliged to provide the employee with written information containing basic information about the trade union within the time limits proposed to be specified directly in this provision. We consider the proposed provision and the definition of these time limits to be rather confusing and unclear, and their application in practice may cause interpretation problems.
It is also proposed to amend the right of trade unions to inform employees about their activities through new means of communication. In this case, too, if the trade union and the employer do not agree on how to exercise this right, the employer is obliged to allow the trade union organization to publish notices about its activities in a place accessible to employees, with the option of reserving a place in the employer's electronic information system if employees have access to it.
The explanatory memorandum to the proposed amendment refers to the need to transpose EU Directive 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the EU. The main reason given for this amendment is the need to ensure that trade unions can communicate with employees working from home.
Webinar - Amendment to the Labor Code and GDPR
This webinar will cover:
1/ The most significant changes to the Labor Code following the major amendment (2022-2023)
(changes in the legal regulation of the establishment, change and termination of employment, agreements on work performed outside of employment, new obligations of employers, changes in the posting of employees and the introduction of paternity leave).
2/ Labor relations in the context of the GDPR
(HR processes in the processing of personal data, purposes and legal bases for the processing of personal data, issues of consent and legal aspects of the control mechanism in the workplace).
At the end of the webinar, participants will be able to ask the speakers questions.
When: November 30, 2022, at 9:00 a.m.
Where: Online via the Webex platform
Speakers: Mgr. Andrea Domény (Hronček & Partners), Mgr. Anna Kopkášová (Hronček & Partners), Barbora Plavcová Gombárska (Top privacy)
Price: free
The webinar is organized by Hronček & Partners, s. r. o. and Top privacy s.r.o.
Participation in the webinar is free of charge and limited to a certain number of participants.
Register for the webinar to get an overview of the amendment to the Labor Code and the GDPR and take advantage of the opportunity to ask any questions you may have in these areas.
You can register now using our form. Join the event on LinkedIn or Facebook and don't miss any news about the webinar. We look forward to seeing you there!
