As of the 01.01.2019, employers are obliged to report any free work positions to the Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, in case they have pertinent work positions. This obligation was allegedly established in order to ease the identification of employments with reduced labour force.

With respect to the above mentioned, it is necessary to stress, that the amendment of the Act on employment services, which established the pertinent obligation, constitutes the pertinent duty of information generally for each free work position. The only exception, when the mentioned duty shall not apply, is in cases where the information on free work positions was already provided by the employer to the information system of the public service operating on the central portal of the public service pursuant to an individual act (i.e. in case of a free work position in civil service).

This leads us onto the prevailing question of how and where do we fulfill the pertinent reporting duty? The reporting shall be made to the regional and most relevant Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, whereby the regional relevance shall be determined with respect to the district in which the free work position is situated. As the form of the reporting is not set out by the Act, the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family issued information according to which, the reporting may be done:

a/ at the relevant office through face-to-face of an employee – agenda for free work positions,

b/ at the relevant office through telephone communication,

c/ at the relevant office through e-mail communication,

d/ through the website www.upsvr.gov.sk by filling out the document “reporting of the free work positions”,

e/ through the website www.istp.sk (free of charge),

f/ through the website www.profesia.sk or www.kariera.sk (with relevant charges), about possibilities of usage of other websites or other subjects whereby the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family maintain updates with respect to the cooperation establishment.

It is also interesting to note that there is no time restraints upon the employer to fulfill this obligation with respect to the Act. Persuant to the wording of the Act, it may be therefore concluded, that the free work position shall be reported at the latest the moment in which it is still free. The Act does not set out the obligation of the employer to inform the Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family on filling up the free work position, cancellation or other way of termination of the free work position. As a result of this, the employer fulfills all obligations in this area pursuant to Act through the sole report of the free work position.

To conclude, it is necessary to stress, that in case the employer fails to fulfill the pertinent duty to report, he may be charged with a fine amounting to EUR 300.