Below are some of the changes that were approved during 2020 and may be interesting and necessary, especially in the area of payroll and labour law:
Social Insurance Act
- With effect from 1 January 2021, the employer’s obligation to notify changes in the data of its employee (surname, first name, date and place of birth, status and place of permanent residence, etc.), change of data on the date of origination and termination of employment or another legal relationship with the employer, the beginning and end of the use of maternity leave or parental leave by an employee, is cancelled.
- At the end of an employee’s employment relationship with an employer, the employer is obliged to submit a record sheet to the Social Insurance Authority. The deadline for fulfilling the obligation is newly set by the end of the calendar month following the calendar month in which the legal relationship ended. This change is effective from the date of promulgation of the act, i.e. 21 July 2020.
Employment Services Act
- An employer is obliged to notify the vacancy and its characteristics to the authority in the territorial district of which the vacancy is located. However, fine will newly not be imposed for non-compliance with this obligation.
Occupational Health and Safety Act
- The obligation for all employers to appoint one or more employees as employee safety representatives is cancelled. Newly, this obligation must be fulfilled only by an employer employing at least 10 employees. Smaller employers may or may not do so.
Act on the Protection, Promotion and Development of Public Health
- Employers’ obligation to notify the competent public health authority, in electronic form each year, of the data relating to employees performing work falling into the second category to a specified extent, is cancelled.
Labour Code
- With effect from 30 July 2020, there were fundamental changes in the conditions concerning the cross-border posting of employees from the EU Member States to Slovakia, and thus the labour-law relationships of such employees will be governed by the provisions of Section 5 (2) of the Labour Code.
- This means that the visiting employer (an employer established in another EU Member State and posting an employee to perform work in the provision of services in the territory of the Slovak Republic) will be obliged to comply with the so-called core of the working conditions, i.e. the rules laid down by the legislation of the State to which the employee is posted. If the employee is posted to Slovakia, it is necessary to comply with the conditions under the Slovak Labour Code (e.g. minimum wage and overtime pay, length of working time and rules for rest, safety and health protection at work, length of holiday, safety and health protection at work, meal allowance, accommodation, transport in the case of a business trip, etc.).
- When posting for longer than 12 or 18 months, all provisions of the Labour Code, special regulations and collective agreements will apply to the labour-law relationship, except for the establishment, end and termination of the labour-law relationship and the non-competition clause. The visiting employer is therefore obliged to comply (with exceptions) with the entire Labour Code.
