On 2 April 2020, the Slovak Parliament adopted a draft Labour Code in order to make the following changes applicable at the time of the declaration of the state of emergency/extraordinary situation (hereinafter referred to as the “crisis”) and for the two months until the crisis is recalled:
- The possibility of working from home, if the nature of the work so permits.
- Shortening of the employer’s obligation to announce the organisation of the working time from a week to two days with a validity period of no less than a week. It is further proposed that the employer should be able to use the hours for which an employee was provided wage compensation due to an obstacle to work on the part of the employer so that the employer may use these hours instead of ordering the employee to work overtime in the future. The scope of such time should not exceed the amount of overtime work, i.e. 400 hours per calendar year.
- In the case of leave-taking, the employer’s obligation to notify in advance will be shortened to 7 days and in the case of leave carried over from previous years to two days.
- The employer will excuse the absence of employees subject to quarantine or isolation and such employees shall not be entitled to wage compensation during this time. Such employees shall also be temporarily recognised as incapable of work – the so-called pandemic leave.
- If an employee is unable to perform work in whole or in part due to interruption or limitation of an employer’s activity based on the discretion of the competent authority or due to restriction of a business as a result of the crisis, this shall be considered an obstacle to work on the part of the employer, where employees will be compensated with a wage of 80% of their average earnings, but at least equal to the minimum wage.
- The support period for receiving employment benefit will be extended by one month for policyholders whose support period ends in the midst of the crisis.
- Further changes were also introduced in the Act on Occupational Health and Safety pertaining to the notification duty upon recruitment of a new employee or reassignment of an employee to another workplace.
The Act can be read in full in the following document:
Labour Code Amendment, as amended and supplementing certain acts
