NEWS
Press conference of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia
At today's 87th regular session, the Slovenian Government, alongside other resolutions, adopted three laws regulating labour issues, namely: the Labour Market Regulation Act, the Mini Jobs Act and the amendment to the Employment Relationships Act. The responsible minister presented the laws, and Prime Minister Pahor then answered a number of topical questions.
The adopted Labour Market Regulation Act will replace the Employment and Insurance against Unemployment Act which was adopted by the National Assembly in 1991 and was subsequently amended several times. The existing act which regulates the area of employment and insurance against unemployment is outdated and, due to numerous amendments, also inconsistent; consequently, its implementation entails a number of difficulties, and also prevents quick responses to dynamic changes in the labour market. The main purpose of the new act is to increase the security of job seekers and introduce the concept of flexicurity in the Slovenian labour market.
The Mini Jobs Act aims to consistently regulate forms of work which, due to their temporary nature and dynamics, can not be considered as employment relationship, even though such work entails, in some cases, the elements of such employment. The purpose of the act is to include all forms of such work into the mechanism supporting social funds and to ensure that all persons performing such jobs have comparable rights arising from social insurance and, accordingly, enjoy appropriate security in the labour market. Furthermore, the act aims to reduce the scope of illegal work and employment, since a new possibility of legally paid work is being introduced, which can also feature some elements of employment relationship, offering more favourable conditions for the employer. Mini jobs will largely keep their flexible character on the labour market, currently attributed to student work, and thus contribute to creating a more flexible labour market while ensuring basic rights arising from social insurance.
Following the principle of equality before the law, the proposed amendment to the Employment Relationships Act provides workers, who are not organised in trade unions, an opportunity to participate through other representatives of workers – who are selected in a procedure specifically stipulated by law – in the adoption of their employer’s legislative instruments that lay down rights which are otherwise subject to collective agreements (amendment to Article 8 of the Employment Relationships Act). Another change in this respect refers to the proposal for a shorter period of statutory notice to terminate long-term employment and the reduction of severance pay in case of the notice of termination of the employment contract by approximately 20%.
At the end of the session, Prime Minister Pahor said that the Government would consider the possibility to help the construction sector in a way that would not be discriminatory against other sectors. “However, the construction sector should be under no naive illusions that the Government will subsidize the difference between the market price of flats and the price prevailing during the conjuncture”; added Prime Minister Pahor. The Government will consider the adoption of short-term measures to overcome insolvency problems of the construction sector, while “the rest is up to the market”, underlined Mr Pahor.