SLOVENIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jernej Jeraj and Katja Triller Vrtovec, PFP Law
• a normative part that contains provisions regulating the rights and obligations of workers and employ - ers in employment contracts, during the employ - ment relationship, and in relation to the termination of employment contracts, payment for work, other personal earnings and reimbursements related to work, health and safety at work, and other rights and obligations arising from relationships between employers and workers, as well as ensuring condi - tions for trade union activities at the employer. Types of Collective Agreements There are several types of collective agreements, such as sectoral agreements (eg, the Collective Agreement for Non-Economic Activities), industry agreements (eg, the Collective Agreement for the Healthcare and Social Care Activities of Slovenia) and professional agreements (eg, the Collective Agreement for Doctors and Dentists in the Republic of Slovenia). A collective agreement applies to the parties to the collective agreement and their members. If the sig - natories to the collective agreement include associa - tions of trade unions or employers’ associations, the collective agreement specifies which members of the association it applies to. A collective agreement binds the parties to the agreement and their members, even if a signatory withdraws from the association, but for no longer than one year. General and Extended Validity of Collective Agreements When one or more representative trade unions conclude a collective agreement, it is granted gen - eral validity, meaning it applies to all workers at the employer or employers covered by the agreement. When a collective agreement is concluded by one or more representative trade unions and one or more rep - resentative employers’ associations whose members employ more than half of all workers employed by the employers for whom the extension is proposed, it is granted extended validity by the Minister of Labour, meaning that the validity of the entire collective agree - ment or part of it is extended to all employers in the activity or activities covered by the agreement.
After the termination of a collective agreement’s valid - ity, the provisions of the normative part (see above) continue to apply until a new agreement is concluded, but for no longer than one year, unless the parties agree otherwise. Collective labour disputes are resolved peacefully through negotiations, mediation and arbitration, and before the competent labour court.
7. Termination 7.1 Grounds for Termination
When an employer terminates an employment con - tract, they must provide justification for the termina - tion at that time. The reasons an employer can use to terminate an employment agreement are limited, and the procedures for termination must follow strict formal requirements. Conversely, a worker may terminate the employment contract without providing any justification in the case of an ordinary termination. In contrast, a justification is required in cases when the employee terminates the employment agreement for cause and without a notice period (extraordinary termination). Termination by the Employer – Permitted Termination Grounds An employer can terminate an employment contract only based on one of the following grounds specified by ZDR-1 (numerus clausus principle): • business reasons; • the employee’s incompetence/inability to perform the contractually agreed work; • a material breach of obligations in the employment relationship; • an unsuccessful probation period; or • the inability to perform work as stipulated in the employment contract due to disability. Under certain conditions, an employee’s material breach of contractual obligations can even repre - sent a ground for extraordinary termination by the employer – ie, a termination without any notice period. Extraordinary termination is possible in cases where
553 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook