Cost per employee in Slovakia

In the Slovak Republic, gross pay is the full pay before the deduction of taxes and mandatory social insurance and health insurance contributions. This is the amount that will be indicated in the employment contract or worker contract. Gross pay becomes net pay after the deduction of mandatory contributions and income tax, and this is the amount paid to the employee to his or her account or in cash.

The employer’s costs consist of gross pay and the employer’s portion of mandatory social and health insurance contributions.

The employment is established by virtue of a written employment contract between the employer and the employee, unless this act provides otherwise. The employer must deliver one counterpart of the employment agreement to the employee.

In the employment contract, the employer shall agree material terms with the employee, including:

1. the type of work for which the employee is employed and its concise characteristics
2. the place of work (municipality, part of the municipality or a place otherwise designated)
3. the commencement date of the employment
4. wage terms, unless they are agreed in a collective agreement
5. additional working conditions
6. payroll dates
7. working time
8. holiday entitlement and length of the notice period

Assessment of the validity of the concluded employment contract, assessment of the validity of the legal institutes used in the employment contract such as Competition clause, wage deductions, employee’s material liability etc.

An employer may terminate employment with immediate effect only in exceptional cases if the employee set out in Section 63 of the Labor Code:

1. the employer or its part is being wound up or relocated and the employee does not agree with the change of the agreed place of work
2. the employee has become redundant because of a written decision of the employer or a competent authority to change the employer’s function, its technical equipment, or to reduce the number of employees in order to ensure labour efficiency, or other organisational changes, and the employer that is a temporary employment agency may also give notice to an employee if the employee has become redundant with regard to the termination of the temporary secondment under Section 58 prior to the expiry of the period for which the employment for a definite period of time was agreed
3. the employee with regard to his or her medical fitness pursuant to medical opinion the employee has lost, for an extended period, his or her capacity to carry out their current work or must not carry out such work because of an existing occupational disease or the risk of occupational disease, or if the employee has reached in his or her workplace the maximum permissible exposure as determined by decision of a competent public health authority
4. the employee does not satisfy the prerequisites for the agreed work provided in legal regulations
5. has ceased to satisfy the requirements referred to in Section 42 Subsection 2
6. does not satisfy, without any fault of the employer, the requirements for properly carrying out the agreed work as determined by the employer in its internal regulation; or performs his or her work tasks in a dissatisfactory manner and during the last six months the employer has delivered to the employee a written notice requesting him or her to remedy such underperformance and the employee has failed to remedy it within a reasonable time
7. reasons exist in relation to the employee for which the employer could have terminated his or her employment with immediate effect, or could have terminated it for a less serious breach of work discipline; notice may be given to an employee on the grounds of a less serious breach of work discipline if the employee has been notified in writing during the last six months of the possibility of termination of employment

The factual reason for termination must be specified in clear terms that avoid confusion with any other reason, or the termination shall be invalid. The reason for termination must not subsequently be changed.

The agreement on termination of employment shall be made between the employer and the employee in writing. The agreement must indicate the reasons for the termination of employment if so required by the employee or if the employment is terminated by agreement on the following grounds:

1. the employer or its part is being wound up or relocated and the employee does not agree with the change of the agreed place of work
2. the employee has become redundant because of a written decision of the employer or a competent authority to change the employer’s function, its technical equipment, or to reduce the number of employees in order to ensure labour efficiency, or other organisational changes, and the employer that is a temporary employment agency may also give notice to an employee if the employee has become redundant with regard to the termination of the temporary secondment under Section 58 prior to the expiry of the period for which the employment for a definite period of time was agreed
3. with regard to his or her medical fitness pursuant to medical opinion the employee has lost, for an extended period, his or her capacity to carry out their current work or must not carry out such work because of an existing occupational disease or the risk of occupational disease, or if the employee has reached in his or her workplace the maximum permissible exposure as determined by decision of a competent public health authority

An employer may terminate employment with immediate effect only in exceptional cases if the employee:

• has been lawfully convicted for an intentional criminal offence
• as seriously breached work discipline

A serious breach of work discipline is, inter alia, the following: unjustified absence of 2 days or more; entry into the workplace under the influence of alcohol; culpable breaches of security regulations.