Slovakia: new employment rights proposed

From 1 July 2007, employees may enjoy increased protection in a number of important respects, according to draft legislation currently before Parliament.

Public consultation on the draft legislation has now closed and may lead to amendments by the Slovak Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family.

The key changes currently proposed are:

• Requiring employee representatives to be notified in writing within 5 days of the employer’s insolvency by the employer, preliminary trustee or trustee of assets
• Preventing the use of probationary periods in recurrent fixed term contracts
• Reducing from 6 months to 6 weeks the maximum period during which an employee from a temp agency providing temporary cover may receive less favourable terms than those enjoyed by regular employees of the temporary employer
• The category of employees protected by a protected period within which the employer must not serve notice on them has been extended to include solitary employees, female employees taking care of a child under three years old and employees drafted for trade union service
• Allowing employees to terminate their employment summarily where the employer has failed for at least 15 days to give them all or part of their entitlement to pay for stand-by service, temporary work or incapacity
• Entitling employees to two month’s severance pay at his average monthly rate (or five months’ pay after five years’ service with the employer) where their employment is terminated (by the employer or by mutual consent) on:

- the winding-up or relocation of their employer (in full or in part)
- the redundancy of their job (in certain circumstances)
- their inability to perform their duties due to long-term sickness absence

• Limiting the maximum working week to 48 hours including overtime in any seven day period
• Removing the provision saying that the average weekly working must not exceed the maximum weekly working hours over a period of no more than four months
• Limiting the maximum working day to 12 hours
• Preventing employees from being required to work night shifts on two consecutive weeks except where required by the nature of the job and the operating conditions
• Allowing employers, where operating conditions allow, to change their weekly hours of work for health reasons or other serious conditions
• Limiting the annual amount of overtime employer’s may require employees to do in extreme situations to 150 hours on top of the 150 hour limit on overtime in other circumstances, making it possible to work 300 hours’ overtime in a calendar year.
• Calculating paid holiday entitlement for days worked at the rate of one twelfth of the annual holiday entitlement for each 21 days worked. Similarly, paid holiday entitlement for less than a calendar year will be reduced by on-twelfth of the annual entitlement for each 21 days not worked.
• Allowing female employees on maternity or parental leave to carry over accrued unused holiday entitlement to the following calendar year after the end of maternity or parental leave.
• Preventing employers from incentivising employees to do more than their normal workload if the increased workload or faster pace of working could jeopardize their health and safety
• Increasing from 7 to 10 days or14 days employees’ entitlement to leave not only to undergo a medical examination but also to accompany a family member undergoing a medical examination
• Allowing employees to take unpaid leave for one day to attend their own wedding or the wedding of their child or parent
• Requiring employers to provide employees with one warm meal and a suitable beverage during working hours or, where responsibility for catering is contracted out to a third party, price of meal means the value of meal voucher. The value of meal voucher must be at least 75 % of the food allowance provided for a business trip of 5 to 12 hours
• Preventing employers from requiring employees to pay for damage caused by their negligence in the manufacture of a faulty product
• In addition to work performance agreement and agreements on temporary job of students, permitting employers and employees to enter written agreements on working activities for up to 10 hours a week

Law: bill to amend and supplement Act no. 311/2001 Coll. Labour Code