Every country in the world has certain laws on its books to protect employees from harm. These vary from laws facilitating whistleblowing and preventing retaliation against whistleblowers to those prohibiting discrimination and harassment.
In this section, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about employee protections in Slovakia, including whistleblower protections, protections from harassment and discrimination, pay equity laws, and equal treatment rights for temporary agency workers. By the end of the section, you should have the information you need to both protect your employees and safeguard your business in Slovakia.
Whistleblowers play an important role in society by calling out wrongdoing witnessed at work. For this reason, many countries have specific laws to make it easier for whistleblowers to come forward and protect them from retaliation. Slovakia is no exception.
Slovakia was delayed in implementing the EU Whistleblowing Directive, becoming the 27th country to pass legislation in May 2023. Law 189/2023 amending and supplementing Act no.54/2019 on the protection of whistleblowers came into effect in July 2023, with some parts coming into effect in September 2023.
The reforms introduced by this law included:
Slovakia’s whistleblowing law requires all private entities with at least 50 employees to establish an internal whistleblowing system. Some employers, including those that provide financial services, transport safety services, or environmental services, must set up internal reporting systems regardless of their headcount.
The law also offers whistleblowers protection from discrimination. Employers may not perform labour actions including dismissal, demotion, or denial of promotion against a whistleblower without the prior consent of the Whistleblower Protection Office. To obtain permission, the employer must prove that the act is not a result of the employee’s whistleblowing activity.
Whistleblowing legislation in Slovakia covers not just employees, but also other people who may come across compromising information at work. This might include:
The law covers any criminal offence with a minimum prison sentence of two years, as well as certain newly included criminal offences such as the endangering of health by unauthorised drugs or medical devices.
In November 2023, analysis by Transparency International found that Slovakia’s whistleblowing law falls below the standard set by the EU directive. Since then, there have been various attempts at reforming the law to bring it up to standard.
During the course of an employment relationship, employers typically need to store and process data on their employees. Many countries have specific rules on how data processing should be handled in order to protect employees. Data protection in Slovakia is guided by EU law.
The main law protecting employees’ data in Slovakia is Act No. 18/2018 Coll. on Personal Data Protection, which implemented the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Under this law, an employer in Slovakia may only process the personal data of its employees if that data is relevant to their work. For example, this may include data related to their qualifications and work experience. Employers may not collect data on an employee’s pregnancy, family circumstances, or political, trade union, or religious affiliations.
The Slovak Labour Code contains rules relating to the monitoring and surveillance of employees at work, including CCTV surveillance and monitoring emails or phone calls. If an employer wants to implement such monitoring measures, they must first consult with employee representatives on the extent, method, and duration of the surveillance measures. Employees should be informed in advance of the measures to be put in place.
When an employer needs additional staff for a short period, one option is to engage a temporary agency worker. In Slovakia, there are rules on the circumstances under which such workers can be engaged and how they must be treated. Read on to learn about equal treatment for temporary agency workers in Slovakia.
In Slovakia, temporary agency workers are employees of a temporary work agency, who are leased out to user companies to work under their control and direction. There should be an employment contract between the temporary work agency and the employee, as well as a written temporary assignment agreement concluded between the employee and the user company. This should contain the main terms and conditions of the agreement, including the type and place of work, the start and end dates, and the identities of both parties.
Employees engaged through temporary labour agencies in Slovakia must be granted working conditions that are at least as favourable as those offered to comparable employees engaged directly by the user company. This applies to pay and other terms of employment, including:
Temporary work agencies in Slovakia must have a permit from the Central Office of Labor, Social Affairs and Family. Assignments between workers and user companies may be agreed for a maximum of 24 months (two years). Such an agreement can be extended or renewed up to four times, as long as it remains within the two-year maximum period. A temporary assignment ends on the expiry of its term. Before this time, it can be terminated by the agreement of the parties or by unilateral termination under certain circumstances.
Employees in Slovakia have the right to equal opportunities, regardless of factors like their race, age, gender, or sexual orientation. They also have the right to protection from harassment in the workplace, including sexual harassment. Read on to learn more about anti-discrimination laws and protection against harassment in Slovakia.
The Slovak Labour Code guarantees equal treatment for men and women in terms of access to employment, remuneration, promotion, training, and working conditions. Employees are also protected by the Anti-discrimination Act, which prohibits various other forms of discrimination. In addition to discrimination at work, the act also bans discrimination in the following areas:
In Slovakia, it’s illegal to discriminate against an employee on the basis of any of the following characteristics:
Harassment at work is defined as unwanted conduct or behaviour that creates an intimidating, degrading, offensive, or humiliating work environment. Sexual harassment is unwanted physical, verbal, or other conduct of a sexual nature. Both of these are forms of discrimination, which are specifically prohibited by Slovak anti-discrimination law. Whether conduct is defined as harassment is determined not by the perpetrator’s intention but by the impact on the victim.
Employees who feel they have experienced discrimination or harassment in Slovakia can have their case heard by a court. If their claim is upheld, they may be able to claim compensation for non-material damage.
Employees in Slovakia have the right to equal pay for work of equal value, regardless of their gender or other characteristics. Work of equal value is considered to be work of comparable complexity, responsibility, and urgency, which means that the right to equal pay in Slovakia doesn’t only apply to employees holding the same job title.
In order to ensure equal pay in Slovakia, the Labour Code requires employers to create gender-neutral job classifications and compensation structures. These must be based on the same criteria for men and women, without any discrimination on the basis of sex.
Understanding what you can and can’t do as an employer is one of the biggest challenges of hiring in Slovakia. Get it wrong, and you could face legal action and damage to your reputation.
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