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Global HR Compliance in Slovak Republic

If you hire an international workforce, or plan to hire, then Hiring and Firing Workforce in Slovakia Guide below will help you understand the nuances of labor legislation in the country.

When the company is planning to enter a new foreign market of Slovakia and has a need to employ a local national there, the first question to answer is how it is going to make local hires.

We have designed a Global Employer of Record service to help you outsource global employment of your foreign workforce to companies like ours.

This solution helps you employ your global sales force in Slovakia as well as in other countries of the world, and provide pay and benefits to your employees, as well as administer any business expenses with our help.

Our solution is different from other hiring modes in that it helps you engage your foreign workforce in full compliance with the local labor legislation. This means you are protected from any non-compliance and employee misclassification risks while we bear all employment risks, not you.

So, it looks very much like hiring your in-house sales force in your home country. However, you focus on only on your global business development while we admin your global HR. In addition, you don’t need to open your own entities in the foreign countries and can leverage our infrastructure in Slovakia instead. With our service, you can become a global company with reduced costs and minimized time and effort on your end.

Your employed foreign sales force will devote 100% of their time to your company product and may stay with you longer than foreign independent sales reps.

Global Employer of Record solution is 100% compliant solution that guarantees you and your employees fully compliance with local legislation in Slovakia .

We are experts in global workforce employment in Slovakia, and our goal is to become your single provider. Instead of working with numerous local staffing agencies and legal advisors, Acumen International can solve your global business challenges and save you time, costs, and resources.

Our team of English-speaking professionals frees you from working through language nuances. Acumen International works 24/7 and can assist you whenever you need, regardless of time zones. Our goal is to create tailored labor solutions for you that are managed legally and in full compliance with the local employment laws.

With our knowledge and deep understanding of local nuances, you easily satisfy your need for skilled professionals in your global industry. With our qualified local partners, you can trust that your global workforce satisfies all local tax, social security, and immigration requirements in Slovakia.

See Hiring and Firing Workforce in Slovakia Guide below for a general overview of labor rules and regulations in the country. Or contact us if you need to employ workers in Slovakia or would like to get more details.

Hiring and Firing Workforce in Slovakia Guide

# Employment Agreements

Permanent employment contracts

In an employment contract, the employer shall be obliged to stipulate with the employee the following substantial items:

  • The type of work for which the employee was accepted, and its brief description.
  • Place of work performance (municipality, part of municipality, or place otherwise determined)
  • Day of work take-up
  • Wage conditions, unless agreed in a collective agreement
  • Payment terms
  • Working time
  • Duration of paid holiday
  • Length of notice period

Fixed-term contracts

Fixed-term employment, or employment for a definite period of time, can be agreed upon for no longer than two years. Fixed-term employment may be extended, or repeatedly agreed to for a maximum of two times within a period of two years. An employment contract for fixed-term employment must explicitly state the fixed nature of the work, otherwise, the law presumes that the employment was agreed to for an indefinite period of time.

Collective agreement  

Two-tier collective bargaining takes place at sector and company levels, where multiemployer and single-employer collective agreements can be concluded. No national-level collective bargaining exists in Slovakia. Provisions agreed in multiemployer as well as single-employer collective agreements are legally binding for the contracting parties. There is no separate collective bargaining for white- and blue-collar workers. Collective agreements are equally applied to all employees, regardless of whether or not they are a member of a trade union.

#Employment Termination and Severance Pay (Dismissal)

Employee may terminate employment relationship at any time giving notice in advance. An employer cannot dismiss an employee without cause. The employer may dismiss an employee only on the following grounds:

  • The employer, or its part, is being wound up or relocated, and the employee does not agree with the change of the agreed working conditions.
  • The employee has become redundant because of a written decision of the employer, or a competent authority changes the employer’s function or its technical equipment, or to reduce the number of employees in order to ensure labor efficiency or other organizational changes.
  • With regard to his or her medical fitness pursuant to medical opinion, the employee has lost, for an extended period, his or her capacity to carry out their current work, or cannot carry out such work because of an existing occupational disease, or a risk of such a disease, or if the employee has reached the maximum permissible exposure at the workplace, as determined by a competent public health authority.
  • The employee does not satisfy the prerequisites for the agreed work provided in legal regulations, or has ceased to satisfy the requirements according to provisions of the Labour Code, or does not satisfy, without any fault of the employer, the requirements for properly carrying out the agreed work as determined by the employer in its internal regulation, or performs work tasks in a dissatisfactory manner and, during the previous six months, the employer has provided the employee a written notice requesting remedy of such underperformance and the employee has failed to remedy it within a reasonable time.
  • Reasons exist in relation to the employee for which the employer could have terminated the employment with immediate effect, or could have terminated it for a less serious breach of work discipline. Notice may be given to an employee on the grounds of a less serious breach of work discipline if the employee has been notified in writing during the previous six months of the possibility of termination of employment.

Unless the circumstances call for immediate dismissal of an employee, the employer is obliged to provide the employee with a notice of dismissal that must be made in written form and becomes valid when the employee receives it. No payment in lieu of notice is possible under Slovakian law. An employer may terminate employment with immediate effect only in exceptional cases, such as if the employee has been lawfully convicted of an intentional criminal offense, or has seriously breached work discipline. The employer may terminate employment with immediate effect only within two months of the date it learned of cause for termination, but no later than one year after the date such reason arose. No payment in lieu of notice is possible under Slovakian law.

#It is prohibited to dismiss

An employer may not dismiss an employee during a protected period, which means a period of time during which an employee:

  • Has been recognised as incapable of work owing to illness or injury (unless such incapacity was induced intentionally or incurred under the influence of alcohol, narcotics or psychotropic substances); and during any period from the submission of a proposal for institutional care or the commencement of spa therapy to the end date thereof.
  • Was summoned to carry out an extraordinary duty during a crisis situation.
  • Is pregnant, or on maternity leave or parental leave, or when a single employee has been taking care of a child below three years of age.
  • Is released for execution of voluntary military training, for regular exercise or duties of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic pursuant to special regulation.
  • Has been released for an extended period to pursue public office.
  • After carrying out night work, has been recognised as being temporarily incapable of night work according to medical opinion.

#Notice period

The notice must be in written and delivered to the employee concerned. Employers must notify their workforce at least one month in advance about the proposed job reduction. The minimum notice period is one month. But the notice period is at least two months for the employee that has been in service for at least one but less than five years and at least three months for the employee that has been in service for at least five and more years if the employer terminates the employment relationship:

  • For economic reasons (the organisation or its part is abolished or relocated and the employee does not agree with the change in his or her agreed place of work or the employee became redundant from technical or organisational reasons)
  • Or due to changes in the health condition of the employee.

An employer can give immediate notice when the employee has breached seriously the work discipline or was condemned for a premeditated criminal act. If notice is given by an employee who has been employed in employment relationship by the employer for at least one year as at the date of delivery of the notice, the notice period shall be at least two months.

#Severance payments

An employee whose employment contract is terminated with notice because of redundancy, abolition, or relocation of the employer, or with regard to his or her lack of medical fitness pursuant to medical opinion, is entitled to compensation of at least:

  • One average monthly earning if the employment lasted at least two years and less than five years.
  • Twice his or her average monthly earnings, if the employment lasted at least five years and less than 10 years.
  • Three times his or her average monthly earnings, if the employment lasted at least 10 years and less than 20 years.
  • Four times his or her average monthly earnings, if the employment lasted at least 20 years.

If the employment contract is terminated by mutual agreement between employer and employee, an employee is entitled to compensation of at least:

  • One average monthly earning, if the employment lasted at least two years.
  • Twice his or her average monthly earnings, if the employment lasted at least two years and less than five years.
  • Three times his or her average monthly earnings, if the employment lasted at least five years and less than 10 years.
  • Four times his or her average monthly earnings, if the employment lasted at least 10 years and less than 20 years.
  • Five times his or her average monthly earnings, if the employment lasted at least 20 years.

#Employee Benefits and Contributions

Mandatory benefits required by law to be provided by an employer:

  • Public holiday entitlement
  • Annual leave
  • Sick leave
  • Maternity and paternity leave

Non-mandatory benefits that are offered by an employer: 

  • Meal tickets with the remittance of the employer over the minimum amount according to the law
  • Company cars also for private use
  • Company computers or mobile telephones also for private use
  • Extra holiday
  • Contribution to health insurance
  • Premium health care
  • Contribution to old-age pension scheme
  • Reimbursement of sporting and cultural events
  • Flexible working hours or optional home working.

#Probationary period

The maximum probationary period permitted by Labour law is three months, but it must be specified in writing in the employment contract, otherwise, it is invalid. For a manager, under the direct managerial competence of a statutory body, or member of the statutory body, as well as any manager who is under direct managerial competence of such a manager, a probationary period can be up to six months. A probationary period can be exceptionally extended in cases of the existence of obstacles at work caused by the employee. This is the only case where the Labour Code acknowledges an extension of the probationary period.

#Overtime

The Labour Code states that overtime work must not exceed an average of eight hours per week within a period of not more than four consecutive months unless the employer and employee’s representatives agree on a longer period, which cannot exceed 12 consecutive months. The maximum overtime work that an employee may be ordered to carry out within one calendar year is 150 hours. Upon agreement with the employee, he or she may work up to 400 hours overtime in a calendar year. The maximum permissible duration of overtime work in hours does not include overtime work for which extra leave was granted to the employee or that was undertaken in connection with:

  • Urgent repair work or work that, if not undertaken, might give rise to a hazard of occupational injury or extensive damage, as referred to in a special regulation
  • Emergencies, defined in a special regulation, involving danger to life or health, or a threat of extensive damage.

An employee is entitled to the wage earned and to a preferential wage rate in the sum of at least 25 per cent of his or her average earnings for overtime work. An employee who carries out hazardous work is entitled to the wage earned and to a preferential wage rate in the sum of at least 35 per cent of his or her average earnings.

#Work hours

According to the Labour Code, regular working time must not exceed 40 hours during a week, or eight hours per every 24 hours. The employee’s average weekly working time, including any overtime work, must not exceed 48 hours.

#Annual leave

Basic vacation entitlement is at least four weeks. The vacation entitlement of an employee who reaches the age of 33 years before the end of a given calendar year is at least five weeks. Employees having an employment agreement with a particular employer and conducting work thereunder for at least 60 calendar days within a calendar year gain the claim to vacation time proportionate to the time worked for that year. The vacation entitlement of a headteacher, head of a school or education facility, head of a special education facility and their deputies, a teacher, teaching assistant, master of vocational education and tutor is at least eight weeks in the calendar year. The Labour Code also allows negotiation of additional paid holidays in an employment contract or through a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

#Sick leave

The right of an employee to sick leave or sick pay is established by the Act on Social Insurance and the Act on Income Reimbursement of an Employee during Sickness. An employer is obliged to pay to the employee income reimbursement during the first 10 days of the sickness leave. After this period, the income reimbursement is paid by the Social Insurance Authority as a sickness leave, for a maximum period of one year (52 weeks). Sickness benefits (or income reimbursement) are provided per day.

#Parental leave

Maternity leave

In connection with the childbirth and care for a newborn child, women are entitled to a maternity leave lasting 34 weeks. If a mother is a single parent, she is entitled to a maternity leave of 37 weeks. If a woman gives birth to two or more children at the same time, she is entitled to a maternity leave of 43 weeks. The beginning of the maternity leave is set by the attending physician, usually 6 weeks before the expected date of the childbirth (8 weeks prior to the childbirth at the earliest). Maternity benefit is provided per day in the amount of 75% of the daily assessment basis. The entitlement of the pregnant insured woman or of the insured woman taking care of a newborn child is awarded provided that the person concerned has been insured at least 270 days within the period of two years prior to the confinement.

Paternity leave

If the mother does not receive the maternity benefit (anymore), the father taking the child over to his care has the entitlement as well. If the mother is receiving the maternity benefit, the father may start receiving the benefits only once the mother ceases to do so; to the father, it is provided for 28 weeks, until the child reaches 3 years of age at the most.

Acumen International can help you fast-track your possibilities of entering and expanding your business in Slovakia by providing you with our Employer of Record services. Our unique mix of PEO/EOR solutions will enable you to jumpstart your global operations almost immediately, cost-effectively and compliantly without any need to set up a legal entity first or afterwards.

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