Last week the Slovak government has taken measures to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus crises for employees and employers. These measures have been approved by Slovak parliament on April the 2nd 2020 and come into force as of April 4th 2020. The changes concern various labour law regulations and are adopted due to the situation in relation to COVID-19 within the Slovak Republic.
Labour Code
The main reason for changes in the Slovak Labour Code is to preserve the existing job positions and help employers to respond to extraordinary circumstances within their companies. The new regulations will be in force only during the crisis situation and will expire 2 months after its end.
Changes overview:
- The mutual agreement for the home office is not needed anymore. A home office may be ordered by the employer likewise it is employee's right to work from home (provided that the nature of the work allows it).
- An employer is more flexible in planning the work shifts - at least two days in advance, valid for at least a week.
- An employer may order vacation 7 days in advance (for the entitlement from the previous year, only 2 days in advance).
- Employees who are taking care of their children due to the closed schools are protected against termination of the employment.
- An obstacle to work on the part of the employer due to the government regulation to close the operations as a prevention to the coronavirus, may be now compensated by 80% of the employee´s average earnings.
State’s contribution to jobs preserving
Employer whose operations where mandatory closed as of March 12th 2020
The employer is entitled to an allowance for each employee to whom the employer cannot assign work because of an obstacle on the part of the employer.
The allowance per employee is equal to the amount of wage compensation paid for the time of obstacles at work, at the same time not more than 80% of the average earnings of the employee. The maximum amount is EUR 1100.
Employer whose operations were not mandatory closed but has a decrease in sales by more than 20%
The employer is entitled to an allowance for each employee to whom the employer cannot assign work because of an obstacle on the part of the employer.
The allowance per employee is equal to the amount of wage compensation paid for the time of obstacles at work, at the same time not more than 80% of the average earnings of the employee. The maximum amount varies depending on the sales decrease as follows:
- EUR 180 for sales decrease above 20%
- EUR 300 for sales decrease above 40%
- EUR 420 for sales decrease above 60%
- EUR 540 for sales decrease above 80%
For the month of March 2020, the maximum amount of allowance is a half from above mentioned.
Maximum total contribution per employer is EUR 200,000 per month.
General conditions for the state allowance
Only an entity that was established and started to operate as of February 1st 2020 at the latest can be an applicant for this contribution.
The value of the sales in the current month must be compared to the sales from the respective month in 2019. In case that the employer was established during 2019, the sales value is always compared to February 2020.
Obligatory requirements for the allowance contribution for an employer:
- pay an employee compensation of 80% of their average earnings
- a commitment not to terminate employment two months after the month for which the contribution is requested
- report the number of employees as of March 31st 2020
- was not a company in difficulty as of December 31st 2019
- has fulfilled the obligation to pay an advance on health and social insurance
- has not violated the prohibition of illegal employment for two years prior to the submission of an application for a contribution
- has no unsatisfied claims of its employees arising from employment
An employer may start to apply to the state allowance as of midday April 6th 2020 (an employer with mandatory closed operations) or April 8th 2020 (employers with the sales decrease). The application must be submitted electronically via web site neprepustaj.sk and must include basic data of the company and specific data about paid wage compensations and hours of obstacles at work in the form of an affidavit.
Data stated in the application will be reviewed by the authority in the future (the allowance payment may precede data checking) and any mismatching with the reality will be penalized. The reimbursement of the allowances will start on April 15th 2020.
ASB payroll team is ready to assist its clients with completing and submitting the application for these allowances.
Mária Hildebrandová
Head of Payroll
ASB Slovakia
mhildebrandova@asbgroup.eu