Employment law shake-up
During the summer employment law underwent several changes, namely to the Transnational Provision of Services Act (“ZČmIS”) – changes which came into force on the 4th of August 2021, and changes to the Pension and Disability Insurance Act (“ZPIZ-2”), which came into force on the 7th of August 2021.
1. Changes to transnational services
Amended Article 4 of ZČmIS stipulates that the user undertaking can also provide transnational services with employees posted to it under a worker posting arrangement, provided the employee has been employed by the employer for the entire duration of the posting to the user undertaking. This transposes the principle of equal treatment under Directive (EU) 2018/957 into Slovenian legislation vis-à-vis transnational services being performed for the user undertaking by posted employees. An employee that has been hired out by a temporary placement agency to a user undertaking shall be considered to be posted to the territory of another Member State by the temporary placement agency with which the employee is in an employment relationship and not by the user undertaking. Article 14 of ZČmIS has also changed, which now stipulates that a foreign employer (established in another Member State) must submit an application to the Slovenian employment service before it commences providing transnational services (the same applies to foreign self-employed persons). Another change is that a foreign employer can execute transnational services only up to 12 months, with the possibility to extend this to 18 months, if a reasoned application is submitted to the Slovenian employment service; before this amendment there was no time limit. If an employer replaces one employee with another and they work at the same job, then their duration of the direction is added up together. A foreign employer must, for the duration of the posting, retain all the documentation (as per Article 14(5) of ZČmIS) at the workplace and submit it to the Authority upon request. The employer must grant posted employees with the rights provided for under Slovenian legislation for the duration he/she provides services in the Republic of Slovenia.
2. Invalidity allowance for impairment resulting from out-of-work sickness or injury
After the changes Articles 403 and 429 of ZPIZ-2 now stipulate that insurant can now access invalidity allowance for impairment resulting from out-of-work sickness or injury. Invalidity allowance eligibility criteria are laid down in Article 144 of ZPIZ-1, namely impairment degree must be at least 50% and the insurant must have at the time of impairing completed the invalidity allowance qualifying pensionable service. Whether or not the impairment causes invalidity is irrelevant. The insurant shall receive the invalidity allowance regardless, if he is already entitled to receive an age-related, early-retirement or invalidity pension. The insurant receives invalidity allowance only for an impairment which arose during the insurance, not before – in accordance with Article 143 of ZPIZ-1. Article 403 of ZPIZ-2 now stipulates that invalidity allowance is to be paid from the first day of the next month after the application is filed and only up to 6 months before. Since the amended Act entered into force on the 7th of August 2021 invalidity allowance will be paid from this day forward for applications filed by 31st of January 2022.
Author: Eva Jean, Associate
