New PDM Form »Eligible Candidate Check«
In 2013 the Employment Relationship Act (Zakon o delovnih razmerjih; ZDR-1) and the Act Amending the Labour Market Regulation Act (Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o urejanju trga dela; ZUTD-A) set out to provide greater flexibility with regard to job placement and thus simplified the conclusion of employment contracts by cutting red tape. Advertising a vacancy through the Slovene Employment Service is no longer mandatory (save for public sector vacancies or vacancies at majority State-owned companies), enabling employers to advertise vacancies via other media (e.g. online, in newspapers, on internal websites) or even on their in-house noticeboards.
Vacancy reporting and advertising and the process of job placements is governed by the Rules on the reporting of the vacancy or the type of work to the Employment Service of the Republic of Slovenia, public announcement and the process of job placements (Pravilnik o načinu sporočanja podatkov o prostem delovnem mestu ali vrsti dela Zavodu Republike Slovenije za zaposlovanje, javni objavi ter postopku posredovanja zaposlitve; Rules).
These new Rules supersede the 2013 rules by changing the verification procedure of the labour market. This procedure must be followed by employers who wish to obtain work permits for foreign workers in Slovenia (e.g. single permit, EU Blue Cars, seasonal work permit, etc.), if a prerequisite to issue such a permit is that there are no eligible unemployed persons on the Slovene unemployment register. This prerequisite is not new, but has been now regulated in more detail. From January onwards, employers will thus need to submit a new PDM form »Eligible Candidate Check«, based on which the Slovene Employment Service will be required to issue a written notice within five working days. If the check shows that there are eligible workers in the unemployed persons register, the employer must withdraw the work permit application but instead hire a Slovenian citizen based on the job placement process.
