Applicable changes to the Labour Code

During June 2024, the National Council of the Slovak Republic approved two amendments to Act No. 311/2001 Coll., the Labour Code (hereinafter also referred to as the “Labour Code”), which bring changes in the area of labour law.

Changes effective from 1 August 2024:

The amendment to the Labour Code extended the co-responsibility of entities for payment of wages to employees in subcontracting chains (so-called subcontractor liability). In practice, this means that a posted employee may, by reason of the provision of services in the Slovak Republic, exercise the right to payment of wage against a service supplier whose subcontractor is their employer, not only in the context of the cross-border provision of services, but now also in the context of the domestic provision of services.

The employee may exercise the right to payment of such wage by written request within 6 months of the date on which the wage is due, but only in the case of the provision of services relating to construction work, in particular services in connection with the construction, repair, maintenance, reconstruction or demolition of buildings. In the case of other activities carried out under a subcontracting relationship, this claim cannot be exercised.

The employee shall be entitled to be paid by the service provider only the minimum wage applicable at the time of the performance of the work, for each hour of work performed, up to a maximum of the difference between the amount of the minimum wage and the wage provided by the subcontractor for the performance of that work. The service provider is obliged to pay the employee compensation, less any deductions from wage that would have been made by the subcontractor, within 30 days of the date the right to payment of wage is exercised.

The service provider may reject the employee’s request if it proves that, when selecting the subcontractor, it could not have foreseen that the subcontractor would not pay its employees’ wages.

The employee, the subcontractor and the service provider are obliged to be cooperative.

Change effective from 1 January 2025:

The change in the Labour Code provides for the possibility for employees to transfer holiday vouchers to their parents (the holiday voucher can be used by the employee’s parent without the employee being present). If all the requirements of the Labour Code are met:

• income received by an employee in the form of a holiday voucher for their parent will also be exempt from income tax in this case,
• the cost of providing this holiday voucher will continue to be a tax expense for the employer.