Abstract
Collective bargaining in Slovenia has a long history and collective agreements are traditionally an important legal source for the regulation of relationships between employees and employers. The freedom of association and the related right to collective bargaining are recognised by the Constitution, while the system of collective bargaining is regulated by a special act. The latter is based on the principles of free and voluntary collective bargaining. The autonomy of collective bargaining is also granted, as the contracting parties are generally free in the determination of issues that will be settled in the collective agreement and in their regulation. In Slovenian practice, collective agreements are concluded at different levels and generally regulate all the most important areas of employment relationships. Moreover, the coverage of employees by collective agreements is (still) very high. Considering the in favorem principle, employees whose employment relationships are regulated by collective agreements generally have a higher level of rights than those provided by the law. All this indicates a great importance of collective bargaining for the regulation of employees’ employment relationships in Slovenia. However, the preservation of this state is also threatened in Slovenia, due to the decrease in the trade union density and employers organisation rate, the emergence of exceptions to the in favorem principle, and the replacement of employment relationships with other forms of work.
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- 1.
For more, see Kresal (1997), pp. 65–78.
- 2.
See Kresal (1998), p. 294.
- 3.
Crafts Act (1931) and the Decree on Specification of Minimal Wages, Conclusion of Collective Agreements and Arbitration (1937).
- 4.
Both labour legislation as well as self-management agreements and self-management general legislative acts (as an autonomous legal source) provided for a high level of social welfare standards and fundamental social rights.
- 5.
Except with private employers (craftsmen, lawyers etc.).
- 6.
See Kyovsky (1978), pp. 27–28.
- 7.
See Belopavlovič et al. (1990), pp. 8–9.
- 8.
The collective agreement for non-economic activities (with subsequent multiple amendments and supplements) is still valid.
- 9.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia and the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia were parties to the collective agreement for economic activities and all sectoral collective agreements. Since the membership in GZS was mandatory for all enterprises and the membership in OZS was mandatory for all craftsmen, all these collective agreements applied to all employers.
- 10.
Collective agreements applied to all employees, regardless of their membership in a trade union.
- 11.
See Kresal Šoltes (2011), pp. 47–48.
- 12.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 43/2006.
- 13.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 60/2006, 110/2009 and 77/2011.
- 14.
The largest representative employers’ organisation—the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia—was transformed from a chamber with mandatory membership into a chamber with voluntary membership, and new chambers have been established as well. After ZGZ entered into force, only employers’ associations with voluntary membership may be established in the Republic of Slovenia.
- 15.
Adopted at the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 (Resolution No. 217 A (III)).
- 16.
Official Gazette of SFRY No. 7/71 (Notification of Succession Act, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia—International Treaties, No. 9/92).
- 17.
Official Gazette of SFRY—International Treaties, No. 7/71, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia—International Treaties, No. 18/92.
- 18.
They are supplemented by decisions of the ILO’s supervisory bodies—the Committee on Freedom of Association and the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations.
- 19.
Official Gazette of FLRY—International Treaties, No. 8/58 (Notification of Succession Act).
- 20.
Official Gazette of FLRY—International Treaties, No. 11/58 (Notification of Succession Act).
- 21.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia—International Treaties, No. 22/05.
- 22.
Official Gazette of SFRY—International Treaties, No. 14/82 (Notification of Succession Act).
- 23.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 54/92, International Treaties-15/92, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 1/97.
- 24.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia—International Treaties, No. 7-41/94 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 33/94).
- 25.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 7/99 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 24/99).
- 26.
Other than two provisions (which do not apply to collective bargaining).
- 27.
OJ C 202 (2016)—Consolidated text 2016.
- 28.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia/I, No. 33/91; Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 42/97, 66/00, 24/03, 69/04, 68/06, 47/13 and 75/16.
- 29.
- 30.
Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, No. U-I-284/06-26 of 1 October 2009 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 83/09).
- 31.
The exemption applies only to the conclusion of collective agreements in the public sector, which are regulated by ZKolP, as well as some specifics stipulated by the Public Sector Salary System Act (Zakon o sistemu plač v javnem sektorju, ZSPJS, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 108/09, 13/10, 59/10, 85/10, 107/10, 35/11). These specifics refer to the determination of authority to enter into collective agreements on the side of employer, determination of quorum on the side of public employees’ trade union organisations for a valid conclusion of collective agreement, time limits for the implementation of concluded collective agreements and to the subsequent accession to a collective agreement. See Articles 41 to 42a of ZSPJS. For more, see Počivavšek (2011), pp. 489–503.
- 32.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 21/2013 and 52/2016.
- 33.
See the third paragraph of Article 9 of ZDR-1.
- 34.
See Article 10 of ZDR-1.
- 35.
See the first paragraph of Article 9 of ZDR-1.
- 36.
For example, ZDR-1 stipulates the right to extra payment for years of service, extra payments for special working conditions related to the distribution of working time, and the right to reimbursement of work-related expenses, while the amount of these extra payments is stipulated by collective agreements (at the level of a specific business activity).
- 37.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 13/93.
- 38.
The decision is issued upon a request for deposit, whereby a copy of minutes of the founding meeting and the statute must be attached thereto.
- 39.
A trade union requires the status of legal entity to participate in legal transactions; however, it is not a prerequisite for their functioning.
- 40.
See the Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, No. U-I-57/95, of 5 February 1998, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 13/98.
- 41.
The conditions are: it follows democratic principles and implements the freedom of joining and operation; it has operated uninterruptedly for the most recent 6 months; it is independent from state authorities and employers; it is financed mostly through membership fees and own resources.
- 42.
The representative status of a trade union is recognised by a decision issued by the Minister of Labour and/or the employer (when the trade union is a representative body with the employer). The operative part of the decision on representative status is published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, while the employer’s decision on representative status of the union is published with the employer in the usual manner.
- 43.
Thus meaning that collective agreements concluded by a trade union apply for all employees with a specific employer, within a specific sector, within the state, and not only for trade union members.
- 44.
The most important body is the Economic-Social Council (Ekonomsko-socialni svet (ESS)), which represents a form of communication between trade unions, employers and the Government (the state).
- 45.
See Article 7 of ZRSin.
- 46.
A Chamber is representative if it includes such a number of members that their sales turnover represents at least 10% of sales revenue in the economy of the Republic of Slovenia for the previous accounting period and includes at least 5% of all business entities which are entitled to join the Chamber.
- 47.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 42/93, 56/01 and 26/07.
- 48.
Article 75 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia stipulates that employees shall participate in the management of commercial organisations and institutes in a manner and under conditions provided by the law.
- 49.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 2/04.
- 50.
The pre-war Crafts Act (1931) stipulated in § 209 that “a collective agreement is a written contract between the employer or organisation providing employment and the trade union, which regulates employment relationships of support staff in that enterprise or profession with coercive effect.”
- 51.
- 52.
- 53.
See also Kresal Šoltes (2011), p. 30.
- 54.
Judgement of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, no. U-I-284/06 of 1. October 2009.
- 55.
For more about the validity of collective agreements, see Sect. 4.4.
- 56.
- 57.
According to the provisions of ZGZ, only associations with voluntary membership may be newly established, while collective agreements concluded only by employers’ associations with mandatory membership ceased to apply after the expiry of the transitional period from ZKolP.
- 58.
The parties must publish the collective agreement and determine the manner of its publication in the collective agreement itself. For a collective agreement concluded for the territory of the Republic of Slovenia, the law already stipulates that it shall be published (together with the confirmation of entry into the register maintained by the Ministry of Labour) in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.
- 59.
Different is only the case of the extended validity of the collective agreement (see Article 12 of ZKolP).
- 60.
The collective agreement contains a provision determining members of the employers’ association to whom it shall apply. If the employer withdraws from the association that signed the collective agreement, he or she remains bound by the collective agreement, but for no longer than 1 year.
- 61.
Therefore, even for those employers who are not members of the employers’ association that signed the collective agreement.
- 62.
In relation to the above-mentioned provision, a request was made for the review of its constitutionality, claiming the existence of unlawful discrimination on the basis of membership in the trade union. While the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia rejected the request for lack of the applicants’ legal interest (Decision no. U-I-174/13, U-I-54/14, U-I-200/2014 of 10. March 2014), the theory refuted an allegedly discriminatory nature of this provision on the basis of international and comparative regulation (Kresal Šoltes 2015a, pp. 282–283).
- 63.
The provision of Article 224 of ZDR-1 applies only until this issue will be regulated by ZKolP.
- 64.
Most collective agreements at the level of the activity that made use of this option provided a higher level of these rights (long-service bonus, solidarity aid, etc.) for members of a trade union. Some collective agreements, however, determined a broader scope of those rights for members of a trade union that are already provided by the law, but to a minimum extent (for example, additional days of annual leave).
- 65.
It should be emphasised that in Slovenian legislation, the negative implementing duty is not interpreted so broadly as to include a prohibition of strike during the validity of the collective agreement. See Debelak (2005), p. 568.
- 66.
It is generally composed of representatives of both contracting parties and the chairman of the commission, who is appointed unanimously by the contracting parties from among independent experts.
- 67.
If the parties fail to regulate these issues, the provisions of Articles 18 to 24 of ZKolP relating to negotiation, mediation and arbitration shall apply to the peaceful settlement of disputes.
- 68.
As a rule, the arrangement in a collective agreement can only be more favourable than the arrangement laid down by the law (in favorem), but may also be less favourable in some cases stated by the law. For more, see Sect. 4.6.
- 69.
It is worth emphasising that ZDR-1 mainly regulates the minimum rights and obligations of the employee and the employer, and does not interfere with the content of collective bargaining (as was the case with labour legislation valid in the 1990s), with a few individual exceptions. For example, ZDR-1 determines the right to the length of service allowance, allowance for work during less favourable time and reimbursement of work-related costs, but does not specify their amount, which is left to collective agreements (at the level of the activity).
- 70.
See Kresal Šoltes (2011), p. 265.
- 71.
The first one is the still valid Collective agreement for the public sector, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 57/2008; and the second one is Collective agreement on extraordinary harmonisation of wages for 2007 and the form of harmonisation of wages, reimbursement of costs related to work and other remuneration for 2008 and 2009 (KPPI, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 62/2008).
- 72.
Since collective agreements at the level of employer are not published, it is impossible to conduct a precise analysis. However, based on the information from practice it can be concluded that these collective agreements also comprehensively regulate rights and obligations arising from employment relationships.
- 73.
The classification of posts (based on the required education for a particular post) is a prerequisite for determining the base wage for each tariff class.
- 74.
Traineeships can only be introduced if there is a basis for that in the law or in the collective agreement for the activity.
- 75.
See also Končar (2006), p. 252.
- 76.
- 77.
In Slovenian theory and practice, individual rights and working conditions are assessed as more or less favourable, and not the entire arrangement. See Kresal Šoltes (2011), p. 178.
- 78.
Končar (2006), p. 252.
- 79.
The restriction of the level at which collective agreements are concluded refers only to a narrow range of cases in which a less favourable regulation is allowed than that laid down by the law, with the aim to take into account the specifics of individual activities. By allowing such deviation only at the level of the activity, the legislator also protected the employees, since the negotiating power of trade unions at the level of the employer is lower than at the level of the activity. See Kresal Šoltes (2011), pp. 182–183.
- 80.
Kresal Šoltes (2011), p. 183.
- 81.
Of course, only for employees and employers for whom the collective agreement is effective.
- 82.
See the Report on activities by Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia for 2015 (Poročilo o delu Inšpektorata RS za delo za leto 2015), p. 11.
- 83.
In the case of the most serious violations, the inspector may prohibit the employer from carrying out employees’ work or a work process, seal the means of work and order the termination of the supply of electricity, water, gas, as well as the termination of the employer’s telecommunication connections.
- 84.
This is not the case for public employees employed by state bodies and municipalities, who must in all cases first file a complaint against the employer’s decision with the appeals commission, and may only then file an action against the decision of this commission at the labour court.
- 85.
The jurisdiction of the labour court is determined based on the place where the employer is established. However, in the case of a dispute concerning a collective agreement that applies in the territory of Slovenia, the Labour and Social Court in Ljubljana has exclusive territorial jurisdiction.
- 86.
See Article 6 of ZDSS-1.
- 87.
See Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, No. U-I-6/09, Up-21/09-8 of 28 January 2010.
- 88.
ESS was established by a contract concluded between representatives of the state, employers and employees (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 23/94).
- 89.
Each side appoints eight representatives, so that ESS comprises of 24 members. Employees’ representatives are appointed by representative associations and confederations of trade unions for the territory of the state, and employers’ representatives are appointed by employers’ associations and chambers operating in the territory of the state.
- 90.
The key areas or issues addressed by the ESS are as follows: social agreement, budget memorandum and state budget, documents in the context of the European Semester, key documents in the field of work of the International Labor Organization, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Council of Europe and similar institutions, key documents in the area of European cohesion policy, systemic legislation and key documents (in the field of social rights and compulsory insurance rights, employment relationships, labour market, employment and safety and health at work, economic and tax policies, legal security, education and training, healthcare, economic position and development of Slovenia, co-management, trade union rights and freedoms) and key national strategies. See Article 3 of the Rules on the Functioning of the ESS (Pravila o delovanju ESS, Official Gazette of the RS, No. 1/2017.
- 91.
See Social Agreement for the period 2015–2016, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 29/2015.
- 92.
Citizens collected signatures through trade unions and demanded an amendment to the Minimum Wage Act (with the aim to ensure that employees who receive a minimum wage would also be entitled to the allowance for night work, Sunday work, and work on public holidays; these allowances were previously included in the minimum salary). The Ministry of Labour convened a meeting of the Economic and Social Council, at which the proposal for legislative changes was supposed to be discussed, but the employers did not want to attend. Legislative amendments were adopted nonetheless (and published in the Official Gazette of the RS, No. 92/2015), whereas employers’ organisations considered this to be a violation of the social agreement and in November 2015 resigned from the agreement. They stated in the justification, inter alia, that “the social agreement stipulates that the consensus of all social partners, that is, the government, trade unions and employers, must be reached on the fundamental issues in the area of labour law, health and pension insurance and the employers’ wage system.”
- 93.
- 94.
- 95.
In June 2018, the elections took place in Slovenia and in September 2018 the new government was appointed.
- 96.
- 97.
Especially important among other collective agreements is the Collective agreement for public sector, which governs only wage-related issues in the public sector.
- 98.
This assessment is based on data about members of Employers’ Association of Slovenia and from the involvement of this association in collective bargaining at the entrepreneurial level. See Skorupan (2011), p. 477.
- 99.
For more, see Senčur Peček (2004), pp. 531–564.
- 100.
The regulation of rights at the level of the employer is merely an option, not an obligation. If neither the employer nor the trade union initiates negotiations for a collective agreement at the level of the employer, or if its conclusion does not occur, the employees’ rights shall be assessed in accordance with provisions of the law and (possible) collective agreements at a broader level that are binding on the employer.
- 101.
Article 10 of ZDR-1 provides that an employer may regulate by a general act those employees’ rights that are otherwise regulated by collective agreements only if no trade union is organised with the employer. In this respect, the employees’ rights must be regulated more favourably than those laid down in the law or the collective agreement, which may already be binding on the employer (for example, a collective agreement at the level of the activity).
- 102.
The union density rate declined to just under 30% in 2008, and then to slightly more than 20% in 2012/13. The employer organisation rate decreased to 85% in 2007/2008 and to 68% in 2011. Similarly, the coverage by collective agreements decreased to just above 90% in 2008 and just below 90% in 2013. See European Commission, Industrial Relations in Europe 2014, Luxemburg, 2015, pp. 20, 25 and 29.
- 103.
Visser, ICTWSS Data base. Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS), University of Amsterdam. 2015; https://www.slideshare.net/christianwelz/varieties-of-industrial-relations-in-europe-2016.
- 104.
Also important is a large number of trade unions that have acquired the representative status.
- 105.
Thus also Kresal Šoltes (2015b), p. 1247.
- 106.
See Kresal Šoltes (2016), pp. 383–384.
- 107.
This refers to the conditions under which the employer may order the employee to perform other work; to additional reasons for concluding a fixed-term employment contract; additional options to order overtime work; longer reference periods for the calculation of irregularly distributed working time, etc.
- 108.
For example, lower severance pay upon retirement, lower length of service allowance, etc.
- 109.
For example, balancing family and professional life, education, employment of vulnerable groups of employees, etc. See Kresal Šoltes (2014), p. 299.
- 110.
Kresal Šoltes (2016), p. 390.
- 111.
In recent years, collective bargaining in the public sector was mainly restricted to the regulation of wage-related issues. During the economic crisis, however, unilateral governmental interference with the autonomy of collective bargaining in the public sector (with intervention legislation) also occurred. For more, see Kresal Šoltes (2011), pp. 192–193.
- 112.
For more, see Kresal Šoltes (2014), pp. 290–295.
- 113.
ZDR-1 defined economically dependent persons and provided limited labour-law protection for this group. It also determined elements of the employment relationship and the presumption of the existence of the employment relationship.
- 114.
- 115.
See Rakovec Bodnaruk and Franca (2017), p. V.
- 116.
Rakovec Bodnaruk and Franca (2017).
- 117.
Kresal Šoltes (2017).
- 118.
Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, -No. 49/2011. This act replaced previous acts with the same title.
- 119.
See The European works council database, http://www.ewcdb.eu/body/1293.
- 120.
Gorenje Group is one of the leading European home appliance manufacturers with a history spanning 67 years. It is an international company based in Slovenia, which brings together some 11,000 employees of 42 different nationalities and generates 95% of its revenues in the global market. See http://www.gorenjegroup.com/si/gorenje-group/o-cupini-gorenje.
- 121.
These are the employees working at Gorenje’s major companies in Slovenia and European Union Member States (Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Croatia) as well as one employee from Serbia who currently has the status of a member-observer in the council as Serbia is not yet a Member State of the European Union.
- 122.
- 123.
Eurofound, European Observatory of Working Life, Slovenia. Multinational companies and collective bargaining, 2009; see also Marginson and Meardi (2012), who (on pages 13, 14) note the positive impact of the comparison between labour costs across branches in different countries (in Slovenian production branches, they are thus approaching those in Western European branches).
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Senčur Peček, D. (2019). Slovenia. In: Liukkunen, U. (eds) Collective Bargaining in Labour Law Regimes. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16977-0_19
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