Applicable changes to the Labour Code

In June 2024, the National Council of the Slovak Republic approved two amendments to Act No. 311/2001 Coll., the Labour Code (hereinafter 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 seconded employee, by reason of the provision of services in the territory of the Slovak Republic, may claim the right to payment of wages against a service supplier whose subcontractor is his employer, not only in the context of cross-border provision of services, but now also in the context of domestic provision of services.

The employee may exercise the right to payment of such wages by written request within 6 months of the date on which the wages are 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, alteration or demolition of buildings. In the case of other activities carried out under a subcontracting relationship, this claim cannot be made.

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 shall pay the employee the compensation, less any deductions from wages that would have been made by the subcontractor, within 30 days of the date on which the right to payment of wages 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). Provided that all the requirements under 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.