Slovakia Employment Law

An employee who has been in the continuous employment of an employer and has worked for the full calendar year is entitled to 4 calendar weeks of paid leave, and employees who are aged 33 years or above and have permanent childcare responsibilities will be entitled to 5 weeks of paid leave. The holiday week is seven consecutive days.

Employees who do not work for the full calendar year but have worked for at least 60 days in continuous employment are entitled to 1/12th of the total annual leave entitlement for each month worked.

An employee who is not entitled to annual leave or a proportional part of it because he did not work for the same employer for at least 60 days in a calendar year shall be entitled to one-twelfth of the annual leave for each of the 21 days worked in the relevant calendar year.

Employees in the teaching and training profession are entitled to 8 weeks of paid leave.

Additional Leave – Employees who perform particularly difficult or health-endangering work, will be entitled to the supplementary paid holiday of 1 week. But, if the work is performed under such conditions for only part of the calendar year, then employees will be entitled to 1/12 of supplementary paid holiday for every 21 days so worked.

Compensation cannot be granted for untaken additional leave; this leave must be exhausted.

For an employee who has flexible working hours, the days for annual leave shall be calculated in accordance with the average length of working time per day based on the established weekly working time. In this case, a working week is considered a 5 day work week.

Shortening of holidays

An employee who has fulfilled the condition of at least 60 days in the calendar year for which the leave is granted, the leave for such employees may be reduced by 1/12th for the first 100 missed working days and by 1/12th for each additional 21 missed working days, provided that in that calendar year, the employee did not work because of performance of extraordinary service in a period of crisis or alternative service in time of war and martial law, drawing parental leave(childcare leave till the age of 3), long-term release for the performance of a public function and for the performance of a trade union function important personal obstacles at work. Employees whose employment with the same employer lasted during the entire calendar year shall be granted leave for at least 1 calendar week.

The employee’s leave is not reduced for the period of temporary incapacity for work caused by an accident at work or occupational disease for which the employer is responsible, and for the period of maternity leave and parental leave (Father taking care of the newborn child).

The employer may reduce the employee’s leave by 1-2 days for unjustified missed working days. Unjustified missed working days that were shorter than the total working hour shall be added up. The leave to which entitlement arose in the calendar year concerned shall be reduced only for reasons arising in that year.

The termination of the current employment relationship and the immediately following establishment of a new employment relationship with the same employer is also considered to be a continuous duration of the employment relationship.

Employees must be granted at least 4 weeks of annual leave in a calendar year if they qualify for it and there are no obstacles on the employer side to prevent granting of leave. However, if leave is granted in several parts, at least one part must be for at least 2 weeks, unless the employee and the employer agree otherwise. The employer is obliged to notify the employee of the use of leave at least 14 days in advance. This period may exceptionally be shortened with the consent of the employee.

In case a public holiday falls within the scheduled annual leave period, it is not calculated in the period of annual leave. If the employer assigns the employee compensatory leave for overtime work or regular work on a holiday so that it would fall on a holiday, he is obliged to provide him with compensatory leave on another day.

If the employer does not determine the employee’s time to take the annual leave by the 30 June of the following calendar year or that lets the employee take the leave by the end of this calendar year, the employee may determine the use of leave. The employee is obliged to notify the employer in writing of this use of leave, at least 30 days in advance; this period may be shortened with the consent of the employer.

If the employee cannot take leave due to illness or injury, public functions, being deployed in armed forces, treatment of a sick family member, by the end of the following calendar year, the employer shall grant such an employee, the untaken leave which could not be taken due to the onset of such events.

Pay – The employee is entitled to compensation of wages in the amount of his average earnings for the taken leave. For the part of the leave that exceeds four weeks of the basic amount of leave, which the employee could not take until the end of the following calendar year, the employee is entitled to compensation of wages in the amount of his average earnings.

For an unused four weeks of the basic amount of leave, the employee may not be paid compensation or wages, unless the employee could not take this leave due to the termination of employment. Labour Code Act No. 311/2001 Coll, § 100 -117.

The employer is required to pay the employee during the first 10 days of sick leave. The employee is paid in the following manner –

Employers shall pay the employee 25% of the employee’s daily rate of pay for the first 3 days of sick leave and 55% percent of the daily rate of pay from the 4th to the 10th day of the sick leave. Thereafter, the employee is entitled to sick pay from the 11th day from the Social Insurance Agency. Entitlement to sickness benefits expires on the day following the end of temporary incapacity for work, no later than the end of the 52nd week after the onset of temporary incapacity for work.

Employees are entitled to 7 days per year of paid leave for treatment or assessment in a medical facility. Employees shall be granted additional leave without compensation for the time strictly necessary if the examination or treatment could not be carried out outside working hours.

Paid leave shall be provided to an employee if a family member is to be escorted to a medical facility for examination or treatment in the event of sudden illness or injury and for a predetermined examination, treatment, or cure for a maximum of 7 days in a calendar year if the escort was necessary and the same could not be performed outside working hours. Paid leave shall also be provided for escorting a disabled child to a social care facility or special school, for a maximum of 10 days per calendar year. Social Insurance Act, 461/2003, § 34, 37, 144.

A woman employee is entitled to maternity leave of 34 weeks which starts between the 6th & 8th week before the date of delivery. A single mother shall be entitled to 37 weeks of maternity leave. Such leave shall be extended to 43 weeks if the employee gives birth to 2 or more children.

If the woman employee uses less than 6 weeks of maternity leave before the birth, because the birth occurred earlier than specified, the maternity leave shall be due from the date of commencement until the expiry of the duration of the leave.

If a woman takes less than 6 weeks of maternity leave before giving birth for another reason, she shall be granted maternity leave from the date of birth only until 28 weeks have elapsed. A single woman shall be granted maternity leave until 31 weeks and a woman who has given birth to two or more children at the same time shall be granted maternity leave until 37 weeks have elapsed.

In case, the child born is dead, a woman employee is entitled to 14 weeks of maternity leave.

If the child has been taken into care by a nursing home or other medical institution for health reasons and the parents start working, for the time being, maternity leave and parental leave will be interrupted at the earliest 6 weeks after the date of birth. The unexhausted part of it is provided to the employee later, but not longer than 3 years of age of the child.

If a child dies while a woman is on maternity leave or the parents are on parental leave, they shall be granted such leave for a further 2 weeks from the date of the child’s death, at the latest until the child reaches the age of 1 year.

Pay – Employees shall be paid via social security insurance law.

Employees shall also be granted paid leave for the necessary time for preventive medical examinations relating to pregnancy if the examination or treatment could not be carried out outside working hours. Also, male employees shall be granted paid leave for the necessary time to transport the child’s mother to the medical facility and back.

Breastfeeding Break 

An employer shall provide two 30 minutes breaks to a mother who is breastfeeding her child in addition to the regular break time until the end of the 6 months of age, and also provide a 30 minutes breastfeeding break in the following 6 months.

The breaks may be combined and granted at the beginning or end of the work shift. If a mother works part-time but more than half the designated weekly working time, such an employee will be granted a 30-minute break for each child up to the end of 6 months of age.

Breastfeeding breaks shall be paid and reimbursed in the amount of the employee’s average earnings. Labour Code Act No. 311/2001 Coll. § 166 – 169, 170, 144.

Another insured person who takes care of a child and who has been insured for at least 270 days before applying for maternity leave is entitled to maternity leave during the period 28 weeks from the admission of maternity, 31 weeks from maternity confession, if single, or 37 weeks from maternity leave if caring for two or more children at the same time.

The right to the maternity of another insured person expires at the latest upon reaching the age of 3 of the child. The leave may be taken by –

• • • the father of the child, if the mother of the child has died,
    • the father of the child, if, according to a medical opinion, the mother cannot or will not care for the child due to her unfavorable state of health lasting at least one month and the mother does not receive maternity or parental allowance unless the child has been entrusted to the mother by a court decision,
    • the spouse of the child’s mother, if, according to the child’s medical report, the mother cannot or cannot care for her unfavorable state of health, which lasts for at least one month, and the mother does not receive maternity or parental allowance,
    • the father of the child, at the earliest six weeks after the date of birth, and the mother does not receive maternity pay for the same child or parental allowance,
    • the wife of the father of the child, if he is caring for a child whose mother has died, or
    • a natural person if he or she is caring for a child by a decision of the competent authority.

Pay – Employees shall be paid via social security insurance law. Social Insurance Act, 461/2003, § 49, 169.

Parental leave shall be granted to employees up to the age of 3. In the case of a child’s long-term unfavorable health condition requiring special care, the employer is obliged to grant parental leave to either parent who makes the requests until the day on which the child reaches the age of 6. This leave is granted to the extent requested by the parent, but usually for at least 1 month.

The employer may agree with the employee that parental leave may be granted no later than the day on which the child reaches the age of 5 and, in the case of a child with a long-term unfavorable medical condition requiring special care, no later than the day the child reaches the age of 8 years. Fathers are entitled to parental leave same as mothers’ maternity leave.

In the case of a child with a long-term adverse health condition requiring special care, parental leave shall be granted for a period of 8 years from the date of termination of maternity leave or from the date of taking a child over 3 years, until the child reaches the age of 6.

In cases where the child dies during maternity or parental leave, the employees are entitled to a further 2 weeks of leave from the day of the death of the child or maximum until the child would have reached one year of age.

Pay – Employees shall be paid via social security insurance law. Labour Code Act No. 311/2001 Coll., § 166.

Employees who adopt or foster a child are entitled to leave for up to 28 weeks. A single man and woman are entitled to leave up to 31 weeks and an employee (male or female) having taken the care of two or more children is entitled to leave for 37 weeks.

Further parental leave can be provided until the child is 3 years old or in cases where the child at the time of adoption was already 3 years old until the child reaches 6 years of age. Labour Code Act No. 311/2001 Coll., § 169.

Male employees will receive 2 weeks of paid leave within 6 weeks of the child’s birth regardless of whether the child’s mother receives maternity or parental allowance. This period is deducted from the total duration of paternal leave.

Employees are entitled to 1 day’s paid leave to be married and 1 days’ time off from work without wage compensation shall be granted for the employee to attend the wedding of their child or parent. Labour Code Act No. 311/2001 Coll., § 141 (2) (e).

Employees are entitled to 2 days’ paid leave following the death of a spouse or a child and another day to attend the funeral. Employees are entitled to 1 day’s paid leave to attend the funeral of a close relative (e.g., parent, sibling, parent or sibling or spouse or spouse or sibling).

Employee shall be granted paid leave for the necessary period of time, not exceeding 1 day, to attend the funeral of the employee’s grandparent or grandson, or the grandparent of his spouse, or another person who does not belong to the said relatives but lived with the employee at the time of death in the household, and the next day if the employee arranges for the funeral of those persons. Labour Code Act No. 311/2001 Coll., § 141 (2) (d).