Pursuant to the Act on Illegal employment, it is prohibited for an employer to employ persons without an established employment relationship. This is applicable for all types of individuals bellow:

• Slovak citizens,
• citizens of European Union (“EU”) or of contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area and Switzerland (“EEA”),
• non-EU and non-EEA citizens.

A third-country national has the same right to use employment services as a citizen of Slovakia, with the following restrictions:

EU citizens

EU citizens are entitled to stay in Slovakia without any conditions or formalities for three months after the date of entry into the territory of Slovakia.

An EU citizen staying in Slovakia for more than three months is required to apply for registration of residence in Slovakia, while one of the reasons under which an EU citizen is authorized to stay in Slovakia is, for example, an employment in Slovakia.

NON-EU citizens

Citizens of other countries than the EU or EEA countries are entitled to work in Slovakia if they meet the specific conditions set by legislation (e. g. to have a work permit / temporary residence permit for the purpose of employment).

Throughout 2018 have been introduced several new regulations to make employment of non-EU citizens more flexible in areas of industry with lack of workforce, in particular in relation to shortening the time periods for granting of temporary residence permits and reducing of a related administrative burden.

Minimum specifications

The employment contract contains the employer’s and employee’s identification details. In order to conclude an employment contract, the employer and the future employee need to agree on the following minimum specifications that will be included in the contract:

Information about employment terms and conditions

With regard to other essentials, such as the method of determining the place of work in the case of multiple workplaces, the scheduling of working time, the amount of leave, the payment of wages and pay dates, the employer may decide whether to specify them in the employment contract or to provide them to the employee in the written form (or in electronic form, if this is possible under the law) or by reference to the relevant provisions of the Labour Code. In case the information is not directly contained in the employment contract, the employer is obliged to provide the employee with given information within the period of 7 days or 4 weeks, depending on the type of information to be provided.

Obligations

On taking up the employment, an employer is obliged to acquaint the employee with work rules, health and safety regulations and collective agreements, if any.

Pursuant to the Act on Illegal work and illegal employment, it is prohibited for an employer to employ persons without an established employment relationship.

Contract duration

The employment contracts in Slovakia can be concluded for:

The Labour Code contains certain limitations in respect to the employment contract concluded for definite period of time. Such contracts can be concluded for a maximum of two years and it is possible to extend them or conclude them again only twice within these two years. The limited duration (i.e. definite period of time) of the contract must be agreed in writing in the contract, otherwise the contract is deemed to be concluded for indefinite period.

Probationary Period

The parties can agree on an initial probationary period of:

Cases

The employment contract terminates also:

Notice period

Both employer and employee may terminate an employment contract by a written notice. As mentioned above, the employee may terminate the employment contract for any reason or without stating any reasons. On the other hand, the employer may terminate the employment contract only in the situations expressly stipulated in the Labour Code:

• The employer or its part:
  • is being wound up or
  • relocated and the employee does not agree with the change of the agreed place of work.
• The employee has become redundant because of a written decision of the employer or a competent authority to change the employer’s function, its technical equipment, or to reduce the number of employees in order to ensure labour efficiency, or other organisational changes, and the employer that is a temporary employment agency may also give notice to an employee if the employee has become redundant with regard to the termination of the temporary secondment prior to the expiry of the period for which the employment for a definite period of time was agreed,
• 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 must not carry out such work because of an existing occupational disease or the risk of occupational disease, or if the employee has reached in his or her workplace the maximum permissible exposure as determined by decision of a competent public health authority.
• The employee:
  • does not satisfy the prerequisites for the agreed work provided in legal regulations,
  • has ceased to satisfy the requirements referred to in Section 42 Subsection 2 of Labour Code,
  • 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 his or her work tasks in a dissatisfactory manner and during the last six months the employer has delivered to the employee a written notice requesting him or her to remedy 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 his or her 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 last six months of the possibility of termination of employment.
• the employee has reached the age of 65 and the age for entitlement to a retirement pension; however, in December 2021 the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic decided to suspend the effectiveness of this Article of the Labour Code, which means that the provision of the law in question will not apply from January 1, 2022 and employers are therefore not able to use it. In the following months, the Constitutional Court will decide whether the given provision of the Labour Code is in accordance with the Constitution of the Slovak Republic and will therefore enter into force or is not in accordance with the Constitution of the Slovak Republic and will be deleted.
• The general length of the notice period for a Slovak labour contract is:
  • the statutory minimum notice period is 1 month (unless longer notice period is stipulated by the Labour Code),
  • 2 months, if the employee was employed for at least 1 year but less than 5 years,
  • 3 months, if the employee was employed for at least 5 years.
  • Longer statutory notice period depends on the length of employment and the reason of its termination.

Social contributions

The employer is obliged to pay monthly contributions to health insurance, social insurance and advances on the income tax. The amounts of contributions are presented in the table below.

Please note that as of January 1^st, 2024 the minimum monthly wage in Slovakia is EUR 750 in case of the 1^st degree of labour difficulty. The minimum wage depends on the degree of labour difficulty rating. Minimum hourly wage is EUR 4.310.

Income tax

An individual’s tax liability is derived from the taxable income. Slovak tax residents are liable to personal income tax on their worldwide income, subject to provisions under applicable double taxation treaties. The tax year is the calendar year and the income is taxed at a progressive tax rate of 19 % and 25 %.

The tax rates applicable for income derived in 2024 are:

• annual taxable income (except for income from business activity, capital and dividend income) up to EUR 47,537.98 is taxed at 19%,
• annual taxable income (except for income from business activity, capital and dividend income) above EUR 47,537.98 is taxed at 25%.

Regular working time

The maximum weekly working time is 40 hours, employees working on the basis of a two-shift system may work up to 38.75 hours per week and employees working on a three-shift system or who are involved in continuous operation may work up to 37.5 hours per week. It is also possible to agree on an uneven distribution of working time with the representatives of the employees.

Overtime

In general, upon agreement with the employer, employees may perform overtime work. Overtime work may reach up to 400 hours per calendar year. Of this time, the employer may order the overtime work in the extent of up to 150 hours per calendar year, the remainder of overtime work shall be agreed with the employee. For the work performed in excess of the standard working time, the employee is entitled to an allowance, specifics of which are regulated in the Labour Code.

Time off

Any employee who works for the same employer constantly for at least 60 days in a calendar year is entitled to annual paid leave on a proportionate basis. The basic annual leave entitlement is at least 4 weeks, rising up to 5 weeks for employees who are 33 years old or older (already in the year in that the employee reaches the age of 33, regardless of the birth date of the employee) and an employee who is permanently taking care of a child.

From 2022, employees who permanently take care of a child are entitled to an aliquot of 365 days, according to the number of days counting from the date they permanently take care of a child and date of its written announcement to their employer. For example, if the child was born in the 200^th day of the year and its parents announced it to the employer at the exact day of its birth, they are then entitled to: 200/365 days * 5 = 2.75, which is 3 days of extra time off after rounding.

Benefits include cash benefits and non-cash benefits provided by the employer to the employee.

The cash benefit refers to the financial bonus on top of the standard wage or salary.

The most common non-cash benefits in Slovakia are:

Meal allowance up to the statutory limit is exempt from tax. As of March 2021, the employer is obliged to allow his employees to choose between a meal voucher or a financial contribution for meal. As of January 2023, the employer can only provide meal voucher to employees in electronic form. Paper meal voucher may only be used if the use of a gastrocard (electronic form of meal voucher) at or near the employee’s workplace during the work shift would not be possible. The amount of the financial contribution for meal should be the same as the amount in which the employer contributes to the meal voucher to other employees (on the comparable job positions).

Effective from January 1, 2022 there is a new type of exemption from personal income taxation applicable. Specifically, benefits in kind, i.e. non-cash benefits (e.g. team-building activities, firm events, gifts to employees etc.) provided to an employee of up to EUR 500 from all employers in a calendar year can be exempt from taxation, provided that costs of such benefits in kind are treated as tax non-deductible costs for the purpose of employer’s corporate income tax.

As of January 2024, non-cash benefit in form of the employee shares or in the form of a business share in an LLC are exempt from income tax, if the comapny has not paid dividends so far; and these employee shares have not been/are not listed on a regulated market until the end of the tax year in which the benefit was acquired by the employee.

Special types of contracts

Besides an employment contract, the Labour Code recognizes three other contract types: (a) Work performance contract, (b) Work activities contract and (c) Temporary student job contract.

As of November 2022, the work conditions have to be transparent, which means in case of mentioned contracts that the employee must be informed about the days and time periods during which the employer may require him/her to perform work. Also, it will be no longer possible to require these persons to come to the workplace as soon as possible, if necessary, since the amendment introduced a period of at least 24 hours prior notice by which the employer will be obliged to inform the employee about assigned work task. Even in this case, the employee will need to be informed in writing of any change at the latest on the day it takes effect. If the employer fails to comply with these conditions, the employee will be entitled to refuse to perform such work. On the other hand, if the employer cancels the work without giving less than 24 hours’ prior notice, the employee will be entitled to a refund of at least 30% of the remuneration he would normally receive.

Work performance contract

The work performance contract may be concluded if the anticipated extent of work (work tasks) for which the agreement is concluded is not in excess of 350 hours in a calendar year. It can be concluded for maximum 12 months.

Work activities contract

Under the work activities contract the working period may not exceed 10 hours per week and the contract can be concluded for maximum 12 months.

As of January 2023, in the case of the performance of seasonal work under Annex 1b of the Labour Code, a new type of work activities contract may be concluded, which for these purposes is referred to as a work activities contract for the performance of seasonal work. The working period may not exceed 520 hours per calendar year and the weekly average working time for the duration of that contract, up to a maximum of four months, may not exceed 40 hours. The contract can be concluded for maximum 8 months.

Temporary student job contract

The temporary student job contract can be concluded only with a person with the status of student, who is under the age of 26 years. Work performance may not exceed 20 hours per week and the contract can be concluded for maximum 12 months.

Personnel leasing

Temporary assignment (personnel leasing) is also one form of employing individuals. This is a flexible form of employment where employees are temporary assigned to a so-called user employer, while the employee is in employment relationship with another employer or a temporary employment agency.

A temporary employee cannot be assigned to a particular user employer for more than 24 months.  Subject to that 24-month limit, a temporary assignment of a temporary employee to a particular user employer can be extended or renewed up to four times. A temporary employee is entitled to be paid at the same rate as the user employer’s core employees. If there is a difference between those pay rates, the user employer is obliged to pay any shortfall to the temporary employee. The user employer is not permitted to assign a temporary employee on to another user employer.

• The Labour Code
• Act on Illegal Employment
• Occupational Safety and Health Protection Act
• Act on International Cooperation when Posting Employees
• Act on Travel Allowances