With the deepening of globalization, when enterprises expand their business in multiple countries, cross-border labor compliance has become one of the most complex and severe challenges. To help enterprises systematically address this issue, we have collaborated with top labor lawyers from over 50 major jurisdictions worldwide (all recommended by Chambers, The Legal 500, or equivalent institutions) to jointly compile a Chinese-English labor & employment compliance guide exceeding 1 million words, and we will continuously update relevant key points.

This article publishes the key points of labor & employment compliance by March 2026 in Slovakia.

01 Overview of the Labor Law System

1.Legal System

Slovakia operates under a civil law system based on written regulations and comprehensive legal codes. Court decisions are not binding sources of law but can be (and often are) used as supportive arguments in legal matters.

2.Resources and Agencies

The Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family is the central government authority responsible for labor relations, occupational safety and health, labor inspection and other labor and employment related matters.

Under the Labor Code, only persons older than 15 years are allowed to enter into employment relationships. However, the employment commencement date cannot precede the date on which the compulsory education.

There is no fixed maximum age for establishing and maintaining an employment relationship. The retirement age is regulated by social security regulations and depends on the year the person is born, their gender and the number of children raised.

2.Qualifications for Foreign Employers

A foreign business may hire locally even without a branch or a subsidiary established in Slovakia, provided that it registers itself as a foreign employer and registers its employees with the Social Insurance Agency and a health insurance agency.

3.Classification of Employment

In Slovakia, so-called dependent work may be performed exclusively under an employment contract, in a similar employment relationship, or, exceptionally, under the conditions set forth in the Labor Code, in another type of employment relationship. Dependent work may not be performed under a civil law contract or a commercial law contract in Slovakia.

03 Recruitment and Employment Contracts

1.Background Examination

The Labor Code prohibits employers from asking job applicants about certain topics, including, but not limited to, pregnancy, family circumstances, and criminal records. Therefore, in general, an employer may only ask the job applicant about information relevant to work that the job applicant will perform, confirmation of prior employment, and a work reference.

2.Contract Types

The employment is established by a written employment contract between the employer and the employee. However also employment contracts entered into verbally are valid, while failure to issue a written contract by the employer is considered a breach of its duties. Work may be performed exclusively under an employment contract, in a similar employment relationship, or, exceptionally, under so-called agreements on work performed outside of an employment relationship.

3.Probationary Period

Generally, in an employment contract, the parties may agree (it must be in writing, otherwise it is invalid) on a probationary period of no more than three months. In case of managerial employees in the first two levels of management below the statutory body, the probationary period is a maximum of six months.

04 Working Standards

1.Remuneration

Under the Labor Code, wages are monetary payments or payments of monetary value provided by an employer to an employee in exchange for work and often consist of base monthly wage and variable components.

A wage is due in arrears for a monthly period, by the end of the following calendar month at the latest, unless agreed otherwise in a collective bargaining agreement or in the employment contract.

2.Statutory Benefits and Social Security

Employers are required to pay contributions for their employees which represent a significant cost of work in Slovakia.

Employers must also provide employees with a broad range of various (monetary/other) benefits as granted by law. Most notably, meal contributions, relaxation passes, travel allowances, etc.

3.Working Hours

The number of hours that may be worked weekly is limited by the Labor Code – generally, the working hours are 40 hours in a week. There is also the possibility to, upon agreement with employees’ representatives or upon agreement with the respective employee, distribute working hours unevenly across individual weeks, if the nature of the work or operating conditions do not allow working hours to be distributed evenly.

4.Rest and Leave

There are three types of vacation specified by the Labor Code – vacation for the calendar year or its proportionate part, vacation for worked days or additional vacation. The standard length of vacation for calendar year is at least 4 weeks per year. An employee who reached 33 years by the end of the particular year is entitled to at least 5 weeks of vacation.

05 Occupational Health and Special Protection

1.Occupational Health and Security

An employee is required to immediately notify the employer of any work-related injury sustained, provided that his/her health allows him/her to do so. Upon receiving the notification from the employee, the employer is required to take the necessary measures without delay to prevent any further risk to life and health. The employer is required to report a work-related injury that results in the employee’s incapacity to work for more than 3 days or in the employee’s death as a result of the injury to employees’ representatives.

2.Special Protection

Certain specific categories of employees are subject to special protection in relation to their working conditions. These categories of employees include pregnant women, mothers until the end of the ninth month after childbirth, breastfeeding women and juvenile employees. Such employees are prohibited to perform certain types of work or work in certain workplaces.

06 Personal Information and Privacy

1.General Rules

The rights of the employee whose personal data the employer processes include: the right to withdraw the consent to personal data processing at any time and free of charge, the right of access to the personal data provided, the right to ask for the correction of your personal data, their erasure, right to restriction of processing or to object to processing as well as the right to data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

2.Transnational Transfer

Under GDPR, where personal data are transferred to a third country or to an international organization, the data subject has the right to be informed of the appropriate safeguards relating to the transfer. Any transfer of personal data must be done in compliance with the conditions laid down in GDPR, including any onward transfers of personal data from the third country or an international organization to another third country or to another international organization.

07 Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment

1.General Rules

In general, discrimination is forbidden by the Labor Code and the Anti-Discrimination Act and the principle of equal treatment applies. Everyone is required to observe the principle of equal treatment in the areas of employment and similar legal relationships, social security, health care, the provision of goods and services, and education.

2. Protective Characteristics

The protective characteristics as stipulated by the Anti-Discrimination Act are: sex, religion or belief, race, nationality or ethnic origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status and family status, skin color, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, wealth, gender, or other status, or the grounds of reporting a crime or other antisocial activity.

08 Internal Policies

1.Applicability

It is common for employers to issue various internal policies and further specify working conditions therein. The Labor Code regulates the so-called Work Regulation, as a type of internal policy that can (it is not mandatory) be issued by an employer. The Work Regulation is binding for the employer and for all its employees.

2.Validity

The Work Regulation, as a type of internal policy regulated by the Labor Code, can be issued only with the prior consent of the employees’ representatives, otherwise it is invalid. The internal policies must be issued by the employer – therefore also internal policies of a parent company can be applicable, provided that they are also formally adopted by the local employer.

3.Whistleblowing

Under the Whistleblower Protection Act an employer with at least 50 employees, an employer providing financial services, transport safety services, or environmental services, is required to designate a person or unit to perform duties in this field such as the receipt and reviewing of a report, and to publish and make available also the methods for submitting reports, on the protection option and on the internal system for reviewing reports.

09 Transactions

1.Employment Relationship

In general, if an employer ceases to exist and has a legal successor, the rights and obligations arising from the employment relationships are transferred to that successor. If an economic entity which, for the purposes of the Labor Code, is an employer or part of an employer, or if a task or activity of an employer or part thereof is transferred to another employer, the rights and obligations arising from employment relationships with respect to the transferred employees shall pass to the transferee employer.

2.Compensation

If there is just change in the shareholding or control over the employer, this is not a transfer and not a legal change for the employees. Generally, employees are not entitled to any compensation due to M&A of equity transfers.

10 Termination of Employment

1.Termination Grounds

The employment of the employee under the Labor Code may be terminated (mainly) upon an agreement, upon termination notice, by immediate termination, in the probationary period, on expiry of the period, for which the duration of the employment has been agreed. The employee may give notice to the employer for any reason or without giving any reason.

2.Termination Procedure

When the employment is terminated by notice, the statutory notice period applies, and the employment is terminated upon the expiry of the notice period. The length of the notice period differs depending on whether it is the employee or the employer who gives the termination notice, the reason of termination and duration of the employment. A longer (than the statutory minimum) notice period can be agreed upon.

3.Termination Protection

There are certain categories of employees, which are protected from being served a termination notice – provided they are in a so-called protection period under the Labor Code. The protection period applies for example to employees recognized at temporary incapacitated for work, pregnant employees, employees on maternity leave, paternity leave or parental leave, etc.

4.Severance and Compensation

The Labor Code states under which circumstances the employee is entitled to severance pay. The entitlement depends on the reason for the termination of the employment by the employer. The employee is entitled to statutory severance pay if the employment is terminated by an agreement/termination notice in case of winding up or relocation of the employer or its part, redundancy or when, based on a medical opinion, the employee has lost his/her capacity to perform the agreed work for a longer time due to his/her state of health.

5.Wrongful Termination

If the court determines, that an employer terminated an employment of an employee invalidly, an employee is entitled to:

• Salary compensation in the amount of his/her average earnings from the date on which he/she notified the employer that he/she insists on continued employment until the time when the employer allows him/her to resume work, for up to 36 months;

• Default interest;

• Reimbursement of the cost of the proceedings and of legal representation; 

• To be reinstated.

6.Mass termination and Layoffs

Mass layoffs shall occur if an employer terminates an employment relationship by notice for organizational reasons (closing of business, relocation or redundancy), or if an employment relationship is terminated by another method or reason not relating to the person of the employee, within 30 days, of at least 10 employees of an employer who employs more than 20 and less than 100 employees; of at least 10% of total number of employees of an employer who employs at least 100 and less than 300 employees; of at least 30 employees of an employer who employs at least 300 employees.

11 Confidentiality, Non-Compete, and Non-Solicitation

1.Confidentiality

It is not mandatory to include a confidentiality clause in an employment contract or a separate agreement, however, it is common. In general, it is one of the basic responsibilities of the employee under the Labor Code to maintain confidentiality regarding facts learned in the course of employment that, in the employer’s interest, must not be disclosed to others.

2.Non-Compete and Non-Solicitation

The general rule under the Labor Code is that an employee may perform other income-related activities that compete with the employer’s business alongside the work performed under an employment contract entered into with an employer, only with the employer’s prior written consent.

12 Work Representation and Trade Unions

1.Work Representation

The term “employees’ representatives” covers a competent trade union body, the work council and the employees’ trustee. Employees may participate in the decision-making of the employer concerning their economic and social interests, either directly or by means of said employees’ representatives.

2.Trade Unions

The legal form of a trade union is a civil association pursuant to Act No. 83/1990 Coll. on the association of citizens. A trade union is required to notify the employer in writing of the commencement of its activities at the employer’s premises and to provide the employer with a list of members of the trade union body, which include employees of the employer.

13 Dispute Resolution

1.Procedures & Enforcement

Under the Labor Code, labor disputes are classified into individual labor disputes and collective labor disputes. The competent authorities and individuals empowered to resolve labor disputes include labor conciliators, labor arbitration councils, and the People’s Courts.

2.Waiver & Enforcement

The Labor Code explicitly states that a legal act by which an employee waives his/her rights (statutory or contractual) in advance is invalid. However, an employee can settle claims that already exist for example in a written settlement agreement under the Labor Code.

14 Others

1.Latest Development & Trends

Another recent development is the amendment to the definition of dependent work under the Labor Code effective from 1 January 2026. The dependent work has statutory elements, which determine, whether work can only be performed in an employment relationship. At the same time, the current wording of the Labor Code already allows employees, in certain cases, either a high degree of autonomy in organizing their working hours.

2.Cultural and Religious Considerations

It is important for any international investors to be aware that employment relationships in Slovakia are highly regulated and employee-protective.

* To avoid ambiguity, this article should not be regarded as legal advice.

Authors

Tomáš Rybár is a Partner at Čechová & Partners with more than 20 years of legal experience. He is primarily active in the areas of employment law as well as commercial law, regulation and compliance. The practice is among the largest and longest-standing dedicated employment teams in Slovakia and ranks among the top practices nationwide by volume and turnover. His experience covers the full spectrum of employment law, including executive contracts, terminations, mass redundancies, employee transfers, internal investigations, compliance, collective bargaining, employee data protection, and remuneration structures.

Translator

Jin Dongjie, Master of Laws, associate at Anli Partners. Area of expertise: Labor Law, ESG Compliance, Dispute Resolution.