Living and working in Slovakia

To mitigate the negative consequences of inflation, the inflation subsidies continued into 2023. They were provided to vulnerable households as well as to public and private companies, public administration bodies and churches. Their main goal was to mitigate increased energy prices. To increase support to households at risk, the housing allowance was increased as much as threefold, and at the end of the year, the amounts of other benefits addressing material need were also increased over 30%.

There was no significant change in the area of working hours. The Labour Code added a new option for work performed outside the employment relationship, the so-called agreement on work activity for the performance of seasonal work. It defines seasonal work as work that depends on the change of seasons, repeats every year and does not exceed eight months in a calendar year.

The amendment to the Act on Safety and Health Protection at Work brought several changes that aimed to remove the administrative burden for employers without reducing the level of safety for employees.

The wage gap between women and men in Slovakia reached 18.8% in 2022. The government approved the Action Plan for Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities 2021–2027, with the intention of reducing the gender wage gap, improving the conditions for reconciling work and family life, increasing the employment of people with parental responsibilities, and making visible the economic benefit of unpaid work.

Social dialogue is guaranteed by several laws, but in the private sphere, especially in small businesses, the absence of union organisation persists. The extension of the binding nature of collective agreements is still suspended. The Economic and Social Council (a tripartite body) met only 5 times in 2023 compared with 13 times in 2022. In total, 26 multiemployer collective agreements and 18 collective labour disputes were registered at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family in 2023. Almost all labour disputes were successfully resolved by mediation or arbitration procedures. Only disputes in the transport and banking sectors resulted in strikes, the duration of which was short.

The new government, which emerged from the early elections in September 2023, in its programme statement signed up to supporting social dialogue and collective bargaining, especially its quality and employee participation in decision-making.

Based on Eurostat data, Slovakia is among the EU Member States with the highest proportion of night work and overtime hours (non-standard hours). Therefore, the government aims to limit non-standard working hours. Measures related to digitalisation as well as the greening of the economy in order to create better-quality and better-paid jobs are also planned. Changes are also foreseen to improve the quality of labor law regulations and regulations in the field of safety and health protection at work and to strengthen the performance of labor inspection.