Working time and Leave

Slovenes want to stay fit and out of all outdoor activities are very popular. Ljubljana Marathon has been organised in Ljubljana by the City Municipality of Ljubljana (MOL) since 1996 and attracts several thousand people each year. Photo: STA


Working time is the actual working time during which the employee works/is available to the employer and performs the task outlined in the employment contract, the time of 30-minute break (which is included in the working time), and the time taken up by legitimate absences from work.

Working time

Full working time is fixed on a weekly basis and usually amounts to 40 hours a week. It can be less but not under 36 hours a week. Where there is a great risk of injury or harm to health, full working time may be under 36 hours a week. Full working time may not be spread over less than four days a week.

The employer must give the employee prior written notice of the obligation to perform overtime and pay them accordingly. The employer is however limited to a maximum of 8 hours of overtime a week, 20 hours a month or 170 hours a year. Exceptionally and with employee’s approval the overtime of 230 hours is allowed in certain sectors, e.g. health. This has to be stipulated in the collective agreement for a particular sector or for particular profession. It is also important that the employer is obliged to organize the employee’s work in accordance with the weekly and monthly limitations in to ensure, apart from the daily rest, the weekly rest which has to be at least 24 hours once a week. The obligatory break between two working days is also determined by the law and is 12 hours in a 24-hour period.

An employee is entitled to a special bonus for overtime work and for work which is less convenient for the employee (night shift, working during holidays). Bonus is calculated only for the time spent working in the abovementioned conditions and its amount is set by the collective agreement at the level of the activity. For instance, the collective agreement for hotel trade and tourism stipulates that an employee is entitled to a 30 % bonus for overtime. The base for calculating the bonus is the basic wage of the employee and the appropriate hourly rate.

Employers may not require overtime for certain protected categories of employees (pregnant women, older workers, workers in especially hazardous jobs, etc.).

Where full working time is organised in an irregular manner or temporarily re-organised, working time may not exceed 56 hours a week and may not continue for more than six months.

Night work

Night work is work performed in the period between 11 pm and 6 am the following day. Where fixed night work is changed on account of the organisation of working time, night work comprises eight continuous hours in the period between 10 pm and 7 am the following day. The working time of a night worker may not last on average over eight hours a day calculated over a four-month period. Special regulations apply to night work by women in the manufacturing industry, while night work is prohibited in the case of workers aged under 18, pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Anything that goes against what has been described above is illegal. The authorities competent to rule in such matters are the corresponding trades unions and the Labour Inspectorate.

Leave

The Employment Relationships Act stipulates that every employee is entitled to annual leave, not less than four weeks, in every calendar year regardless of whether he is employed full-time or less than full time. The minimum number of days of leave is determined on the basis of the employee’s work distribution. That is how, for example, an employee working five days a week is entitled to 20 days of leave (four weeks multiplied by five days), and to 24 days if his week consists of six working days (four weeks multiplied by six days) or to 16 days in case his work is distributed across 4 days etc.

Age, invalidity, children, physical impairment of the employee and care for handicapped child are a basis for acquiring additional days of annual leave. Employees are also entitled to additional days of annual leave on the basis of criteria provided for in the collective agreements and in general acts of the employer. It should be stressed that the provision laying down the annual leave and the method of its calculation in an integral part of the employment contract in connection with which parties of the employment contract can refer to the legislation in force, collective agreements and general acts of the employer.

An employee who signs a part-time employment contract has the same contractual and other rights and obligations arising from the employment relationship as an employee with a full-time employment but they should be implemented proportionally to the working time binding him/her by the contract.

Annual leave is extended, uninterrupted rest which arises from the employment relationship and to which an employee is entitled in respect of work performed during the calendar year and is for at least four weeks, irrespective of whether he works full-time or less than full-time.

Every employee entitled to annual leave also has the right to the annual leave bonus at least equivalent to the minimum wage. This right however starts after a 6-month period of uninterrupted work has been completed, regardless of whether he/she is employed full-time or part-time. If the employee is entitled only to a part of the annual leave — i.e. if in the calendar year in which the employment contract was signed he/she did not gain the right to a full annual leave or if his/her employment contract expires before the deadline after which he/she would have the right to full annual leave or if his/her employment contract in the respective calendar year expires before June 1, he has the right to a corresponding portion of the annual leave bonus — one twelfth thereof for every working month.

An employer must allow an employee to take annual leave before the end of the current year. The employee must take at least two weeks of annual leave by the end of the calendar year and, by agreement with the employer, the remainder by 30 June of the following year. 

Non-working days

Non-working days in the Republic of Slovenia are as follows:

  • 1 and 2 January - New Year
  • 8 February - Prešeren Day, Slovenian Cultural Holiday
  • - Easter Sunday and Monday
  • - Whit Sunday 
  • 27 April - Day of Uprising Against Occupation
  • 1 and 2 May - May Day Holiday
  • 25 June - Statehood Day
  • 15 August -  Assumption Day
  • 1 October - Reformation Day
  • 1 November -  All Saints Day
  • 25 December - Christmas
  • 26 December - Independence and Unity Day

An employee is entitled to leave in the event of temporary incapacity for work on grounds of illness or injury, in order to donate blood or to fulfil other obligations such as military exercises, jury service etc.

An employee enrolled in education or training is entitled to leave in order to prepare for or sit examinations. Unless otherwise stipulated by the collective agreement, employment contract or special education contract, an employee shall have the right to paid leave on days when sitting an examination for the first time.

Maternity leave

Maternity leave lasts 105 days. Mother receives maternity compensation defined upon the average of wages paid off in the last twelve month period.
Father has a right to paternity leave in length of 90 days.
One of the parents has a right to child care leave in order to look after or care for a child for a period of 260 days immediately upon expiry of maternity leave.