The purpose of the third Anti-Corona Act (entered into force on 31 May 2020) is to introduce new temporary intervention measures that will replace the ones that expire on 31 May 2020 due to the official revoking of the epidemic on that same date.
The amount of State aid under the third Anti-Corona Act is limited to EUR 800,000 gross per legal entity, EUR 120,000 gross per legal entity operating in the fishing sector and EUR 100,000 gross per legal entity operating in production of agricultural produce.
The third Anti-Corona Act provides for the following intervention measures for employers:
Subsidized Reduction of Working Hours
From 1 June 2020 until 31 December 2020, employers will be able to temporarily reduce working hours of employees while ordering them to wait for work at home for the remaining part of contractually agreed working time. Employers who will be able to provide such employees with work sufficient for or at least 50 % of their regular working hours will be able to apply for subsidies.
Monthly subsidies shall amount to:
- EUR 448 per employee, to whom the employer can provide 20 to 24 working hours per week;
- EUR 336 per employee, to whom the employer can provide 25 to 29 hours per week;
- EUR 224 per employee, to whom the employer can provide 30 to 34 hours per week; and
- EUR 112 per employee, to whom the employer can provide who works for 35 hours per week.
While receiving subsidies, the employer is obliged to provide affected employees with regular payment of monthly salary for the reduced working hours and salary compensation for the remainder of working hours (paid in proportion and calculated on the basis of 80 % of the employee’s average salary in the last three months).
Applications will have to be filed with the Employment Service of Slovenia within 15 days from the day the reduction of working hours was introduced.
The following employer shall be eligible for subsidies (all conditions need to be fulfilled):
- employer is a natural person, or a legal entity entered into the Slovenian Business Register prior to 13 March 2020;
- employer estimates that on a monthly basis it will not be able to secure 10 % of its employees with at least 90 % of workload;
- employer that is not a direct or indirect user of state or municipality budget, whose share of revenues from public sources in 2019 was higher than 50 %; and
- as of 31 December 2019 the employer did not fall within the scope of an “undertaking in difficulty”, as determined by Article 2, point 18 of the Commission Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 dated 17 June 2014, amended by the Commission Regulation (EU) No. 2017/1084 dated 14 June 2017.
- Further to regular payments to affected employees, eligible employer will have to comply with the following obligations:
- reduction of working hours needs to be notified to the Employment Service within three business days;
- while receiving subsidies, and for one month thereafter, the employer is prohibited from terminating employment contracts with affected employees or a large number of employees due to business reasons, unless the program for dismissal of redundant employees has been adopted prior to 13 March 2020 and the employer did not receive any state aid in line with the third Anti-Corona Act or its predecessor act ;
- while receiving subsidies, and for the period equally as long thereafter, the employer is prohibited from introducing liquidation procedure;
- prior to reducing working hours, the employer must consult with trade unions or workers’ council regarding the scope of reduction, number of affected employees and duration of reduction, as well as obtain a written opinion of the trade union and workers’ council (if there is no trade union or workers’ council at the level of employer, the latter must inform employees about the planned reduction in advance);
- the employer cannot distribute profits, purchase treasury shares or treasury business shares, pay management bonuses and/or business performance bonuses in 2020 or for 2020; and
- while receiving subsidies, and for one month thereafter, the employer cannot order overtime work, introduce irregular distribution of working hours, or temporarily redistribute working hours if the work can be performed by the employees with reduced working hours.
Partial Reimbursement of Salary Compensations
Employers who will order employees to wait for work at home due to the implications of the epidemic until 30 June 2020, will be able to apply for reimbursement of salary compensations paid to such employees, however, the reimbursements will be granted under new terms and in a lower amount.
Salary compensations will continue to amount to 80 % of employee’s average salary in the last three months, but not less than EUR 940.58 gross. As regards the reimbursement of salary compensations, for June 2020 the State will only reimburse 80 % of salary compensations, but not more than EUR 892.50 (including taxes and social security contributions) per employee.
The conditions of eligibility remain the same, including the revenue-based condition (anticipated 10 % decrease in 2020 revenues in comparison to 2019 annual revenues; employers that were not operating throughout 2019 or 2020 will also be eligible under special conditions). The prohibition of distributing profits, purchasing treasury shares or treasury business shares, paying management bonuses, and/or business performance bonuses in 2020 or for 2020 does not apply to this measure.
While receiving subsidies, and for the period equally as long thereafter, the employer is prohibited from introducing liquidation procedure. The employer is also prohibited from terminating an employment contract with an employee who is receiving salary compensation.
Applications need to be filed electronically with the Employment Service of Slovenia within 8 days from ordering employees to wait for work at home, in any case not later than by 30 June 2020.
A version of this article in the Slovenian language is available here.
