Slovenia: Slovenia Enacts Permanent Short-Time Work Scheme for Use During Emergencies: Key Legal Provisions of ZUDPNP

The law introduces a support scheme aimed at preserving jobs during periods when employers (legal entities or natural persons, registered in the Slovenian Business Register or the Agricultural Holdings Register) are temporarily unable to provide full workloads due to specific crisis-related circumstances (specified below). To be eligible, an employer must determine that, on a monthly basis, it is unable to provide at least 90% of the regular workload to at least 30% of its employees. Under such conditions, employers are permitted to assign full-time employees to part-time work (no less than 20 hours per week) and place them on partial temporary layoff for the remaining hours (between 5 and 20 hours per week). Employers may then claim partial reimbursement for the salary compensation paid for those unworked hours.

The amount of reimbursement provided by the Republic of Slovenia is set at 60% of the paid salary compensation (gross I), excluding employer contributions. However, the maximum reimbursement may not exceed 50% of the average monthly salary in Slovenia for the year preceding the application.

Eligible situations include:

• Natural disasters or other emergency situations activated under official protection and rescue plans in accordance with applicable legislation, or
• Crisis conditions officially recognized by a Government decree affecting specific sectors or business units, where the employer could not have reasonably anticipated or mitigated the temporary negative impact on their operations (e.g., the automotive sector).

Employer obligations and restrictions include:

• Employers may not initiate dismissals on economic grounds for employees covered by a short-time work arrangement or employees in equivalent positions during the period of receiving reimbursement. This dismissal ban continues after the end of the reimbursement period for a duration equal to the period during which the employer received the subsidy, but not less than one month.
• Employers may not assign overtime work or introduce irregular or temporarily redistributed working schedules if such work can be performed by employees working reduced hours under this scheme.

The new law also imposes certain obligations on employees assigned to short-time work. Within five working days from the commencement of such an arrangement, the employee must register with the Employment Service of the Republic of Slovenia in the official register of workers participating in the short-time work scheme, and notify the employer of this registration. During the period of reduced working hours, the employee may, in agreement with the Employment Service, participate in training or education programmes. For each hour of active participation, the employee is entitled to receive a supplement and reimbursement of certain related costs. Furthermore, upon successful completion of the training or education, the Employment Service grants the employee a financial incentive in the amount of EUR 100.

Safeguard clauses to ensure responsible use of public funds are the following:

• If, within one year from the issuance of the decision granting reimbursement, the employer adopts a resolution on profit-sharing, pays out dividends or income treated as dividends, buys back its own shares or ownership interests, or awards performance-based bonuses to management, it must notify the competent authority and repay the received funds in full.
• Furthermore, if in the second or third year following the decision the employer carries out any of the same profit-distributing actions (profit-sharing, dividend payments, share buybacks, management bonuses), it must repay to the state an amount equal to those distributions, capped at 50% of the received reimbursements, adjusted for inflation based on the average annual rate published by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. This repayment obligation also applies to legal successors and affiliated companies of the employer.

This law is a proactive measure by the Slovenian government aiming to stabilize the labour market during times of disruption (e.g., natural disaster or economic crises) and to support both employers and employees in maintaining employment relationships.

Should you have any further questions related to employment matters, please contact attorney Pia Florjančič Požeg Vancaš at [email protected].