BRATISLAVA, July 27, (WEBNOVINY) — President Ivan Gasparovic signed the parliament-approved government amendment to the Labor Code on Wednesday. „The head of state decided to sign the amended Labor Code into law as he found no reasons for returning it [to lawmakers] over possible doubts about its compliance with the Constitution of the Slovak Republic and its international commitments stemming from EU directives concerning employment law, or treaties and recommendations of the International Labor Organization.“ stated the presidential spokesman Marek Trubac. Some novelties in the Labor Code revision, such as the flexi-account of hours worked and shared job position could help prevent unemployment growth, the head of state opines.
As of September 1 of this year, a laid off employee will no longer be entitled to both a notice period as well as severance pay. The new legislation maintains provisions on minimum wage entitlement. Trade unions, however, will face new rules. If a trade union organization wants to represent all employees, when asked by the employer it will have to document that at least 30 percent of employees are its members. Benefits agreed upon during collective bargaining will not apply to top managers at organizations governed by the law on services in public interest.
The revision also sets rules for an employee and an employer during the trial period. It will be possible to terminate employment in writing due to any reason or even without providing reasons for such decision during a trial period. On the contrary, dismissal of a pregnant or breastfeeding woman and those nine months after childbirth during trial period will be more difficult. This will be possible only in extraordinary cases that do not involve pregnant women or mothers, whereby the reasons for the dismissal will have to be clarified in writing. Moreover, employees will be allowed to agree with their employer upon working on night duties for two weeks in a row.
Furthermore, the amendment implements the concept of an account of worked hours with an option to accumulate both positive and negative hours, proposed by the liberal party SaS. This will allow employers to react better to needs of clients and simplify the administration related to accumulation of worked hours, which otherwise would be defined as overtime. The new Labor Code caps the fee for service mediation via meal vouchers at 3 percent of the value mentioned on the respective voucher.
The Labor Code revision reflects some requirements from the petition filed by nurses and midwives. Fifty-year old medical staffers will be allowed to reject overtime work and night duties. Additionally, they will be given five free days a year for continual education but will not lose their salary for this period.
The notice period will be cut from the minimum two months to one month with employment lasting less than a year. The current two-month notice period will apply to employees employed for one to five years. Employees who work for the employer for more than five years will be entitled to a three-month notice period.
From the age of thirty-three, all employees will have five weeks of paid leave. It will be possible to extend a definite period employment contract three times at the most, but the respective period must not exceed three years.
SITA