Activities of the Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia in 2018

The most common violations in the area of labour relationships, according to the IRSD, relate to remuneration for work, e.g. the failure to pay, or late payment of salary, failure to pay the holiday allowance or bonuses, failure to issue a payslip, violations regarding the minimum wage etc. As in previous years, the IRSD has devoted significant attention to violations in the area of precarious work, i.e. situations where employees are in fact in a labour relationship with the employer, but are bound on paper on the basis of a different type of agreement (such as a service or copyright contract or via their own private business (s.p.)). An increase in violations of referred work rules has also been recorded, since numerous employers refer employees to other employers, even though they are not registered as an agency. Because the Transnational Provision of Services Act entered into force on January 1st 2018, the IRSD has launched investigations into secondments of employees to work abroad, or foreigners to arrive to work in Slovenia. Since secondments are becoming increasingly common in practice, we can also expect controls in this area to be stepped up by the IRSD.

The IRSD found that the most common violations of Safety and Health at Work occur regarding the (poorly) drafted Health and Safety Statements, while also on the increase are violations of (failures) to provide preliminary medical check-ups for employees and violations in training employees for safe work. In 2018, the highest number of violations are those regarding the arrangement of outdoor work posts (e.g. building sites – irregularities when working at a height, regarding personal protective equipment or e.g. electrical wiring in outdoor work posts).

Bearing in mind the IRSD’s work programme for 2019 and 2020, we would like to draw attention to the fact that the IRSD will focus on supervising the above areas and future violations, and will place extra emphasis on inspections of workplace and employee records. Special attention will be given to the prevention of illegally providing workforce and compliance with rules on transnational provision of services. Slovene and foreign employers should take particular notice of this. Within the framework of targeted inspections of safety and health at work, the IRSD will certainly be conducting inspections in the building trade, the metal and metal product manufacturing, and, maintenance work and the professional competence of external services, in nursing and trade.

In the event a business is targeted for inspection, the employer must not hinder the inspection, provide the inspector with written clarification, provide all documentation to be examined as requested by the inspector during the course of the inspection (regardless of the personal data it may contain), and make a statement about the violation for the record if required. It is reasonable during the course of an inspection – to avoid self-incrimination or the communication of incomplete data –for in-house or outside counsel to attend. Cooperation in such procedures is advised, as this generally has a bearing on any sanction imposed by the inspector.

When choosing disciplinary measures, the inspector weighs all the possible circumstances that would allow for a more lenient measure (a warning), e.g. the circumstances that lead the employer to committing the offence, the extent to which the protected legal value has been threatened, the circumstances in which the violation took place, previous violations, the behaviour of the employer after the committed violation, etc. If the violations are not severe and the employer immediately sets about addressing the violation (under the presumption that the employer has not committed the same violations previously), the inspector will often opt to issue a warning. However, if the employer fails to act on the warning by the given deadline, the inspector can impose a fine, or in the case of particularly severe violations, even prohibit the employer from carrying on further activities until the irregularities have been redressed, or until he deems it necessary. 

The number of inspections carried out and the number of fines issued are increasing year after year, while inspectors unfortunately find that employers commit the same type of violations every year. Against this background, the IRSD has already provided suggestions for amendments to key legislation (e.g. the Labour and Social Security Registers Act) to the ministry, which would result in further obligations being imposed on employers and simultaneously raise the fines for the most common/most often repeated violations.