On 21 April 2023, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted an amendment to the Labor and Social Security Registers Act (ZEPDSV-A) effective as of 20 May 2023. The amendment introduces significant changes in the field of obligations and recording of working time.
Until now, employers were obliged to keep records of the use of working time with certain mandatory data, including the number of hours and the total number of hours worked, overtime hours worked, hours not worked for which wage compensation is received and the number of hours of work on workplaces for which the insurance period with an increase is considered, or in which additional pension insurance is mandatory. The amendment ZEPDSV-A expands the set of mandatory data with additional data, which includes the time of the employee’s arrival at and departure from work, use and duration of breaks during working hours, hours worked in other special working conditions, which result from the distribution of working time (especially night, Sunday, shift, holiday work, work in split working hours and other forms of working time distribution) and in uneven or temporarily redistributed working time and the running total of hours in the week, month or year. In addition to the possibility for the employee to examine this data, the employer will have to inform the employees in writing about the use of working time on a monthly basis. An essential novelty also relates to the obligation to keep records electronically, should the Labor Inspectorate impose a final fine on the employer for violating rules regarding working hours.
In practice, employers record the use of working time in different ways, in the form of a physical book or electronically, wherein some employers do not keep records at all. From the perspective of the new legislation, it will be important for companies to regulate the obligations related to the way of keeping records on the use of working time and informing employees in an internal policy in a manner that will be in accordance with the amended law. Otherwise, they will risk fines, which can be significantly higher from now on (even up to EUR 20,000).
