Slovakia modernises ‘home office’ rules under Employment Law. Digital nomads, or the choice of any place of work in employment contract by employees, will become a reality.
The amendment to the Labor Code, which is already before the Slovak Parliament, will significantly modernise the legal institution of ‘home office’. Due to new modern trends, where the permanent presence of employees at the workplace is increasingly dispensed with, the conditions for home office work will be redefined. A home office will no longer be seen as just working from home, but rather employees will have a way to determine their own working hours and actual work location. Digital nomads who move around the world (without having a home) and working from anywhere will finally find their legal basis. In addition, the employer will have to share the costs of employees associated with a home office, such as BYOD costs, electricity costs, high-speed internet, and so on.
Furthermore, the amendment to the Labor Code will also simplify the unpaid temporary employment of employees between group companies. Finally, the law will include the explicit possibility of mutual allocation of personnel costs actually spent.
As a novelty, the amendment to the Labor Code will abolish a Slovak specificity, the so-called meal vouchers. Employees may be given the option of choosing a financial meal allowance instead of meal vouchers.
Employers will no doubt also welcome an important change in collective labour law. The head of the trade union active in a company or persons active in a local trade union body will in future have to be employed by this specific company. This will eliminate such (absurd) situations in which employees are represented by persons who do not work for the employer at all and are therefore fundamentally unfamiliar with local working conditions at the employer.
Source: Draft of the Amendment to Act No 311/2001 Coll. Labor Code