STA, 28 March 2022 - Finance criticises in Monday's commentary the administrative units for being slow in processing applications for work permits filed by foreigners, saying that these applicants will not sit idle while waiting for a response. This is also important in light of Ukrainian refugees coming to Slovenia.

This is a long-standing problem - there are no workers in Slovenia, foreigners from third countries would like to work, but they have to wait an average of six months for a permit.

On the other hand, the state apparatus says that the matter cannot be speeded up because there is not enough employees, the newspaper says under the headline An F for Administrative Units.

The most surprising data is that 15,000 applications are pending in the Ljubljana administrative unit alone, Finance says, noting that production or construction workers, as well as highly qualified staff, are waiting for a permit.

A new task force has been appointed to deal with the issue, which has assessed that the backlog could be reduced or eliminated in six months, under the assumption that there will be unannounced sick leaves or termination of job contracts.

"Today, when user experience is important, it seems that public administration has gotten stuck in the previous century," Finance says, adding that it is processing mountains of documents and complaining that it does not have enough employees.

A foreign worker cannot sit idle while waiting, and if they are not hired in Slovenia, they will try to get a job in Austria, as he is only tens of kilometres away and where wages are higher.

Noting that Ukrainian refugees are coming, Finance says that the state is all about promises and wonders whether it will now wake up and make sure that refugees sort out the paperwork faster so that they can start to work.

STA, 15 February 2022 - The average gross pay in Slovenia rose by 6.1% in nominal terms in 2021 to EUR 1,970, the fastest pace in five years. The increase was almost equally driven by the public and private sectors, show the latest Statistics Office figures.

While the nominal increase is the fastest in five years, the real increase was a more modest 4.1% due to high inflation last year.

The average pay rose by 6.5% in the public sector, to EUR 2,337, and by 6.1% in the private sector, to EUR 1,941.

In December, the average wage dropped by a percent compared to the month before, which the statisticians attribute to lower Christmas bonuses paid out for December since most such bonuses come with November wages.

The average net pay rose by 5.1% in nominal terms and 3.1% in real terms to EUR 1,270.

STA, 9 February 2022 - A total of 46% of Slovenian employers intend to raise wages by 5% in the first half of this year, shows Manpower's survey on salary and employee benefits trends. Employers cite retaining talent in their organisations as the main reason for the increase.

According to Manpower, 25% of the employers expect to raise pay between 6% and 10%, 4% expect a rise of 11-15%, and 1% a rise of more than 21%.

A total of 24% of the employers, on the other hand, do not intend to increase pay.

Although the majority of the employers plan to increase wages, 74% do not see the need to increase other benefits and financial incentives.

In addition, 43% of the country's employers expect to increase wages for all employees in the company in the first half of 2022, whereas 12% will do so for 50-80% of their employees. 21% of the employers will do this for between 20-50% of their staff, and 24% intend to increase wages for up to 20% of workers.

The main aim of employers seems to be to retain talent in their firms. "When asked whether the planned increase in salaries and/or additional benefits is more related to retaining or attracting new employees, 68% of Slovenian employers said it is a retention measure, while 14% said it is a measure to attract new employees," Manpower said.

Planning to announce wage increases to retain staff are most companies in manufacturing, IT, consulting services, banking, insurance and finance, telecommunications, science, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, education, transport and logistics, and construction.

Tourism, car industry and outsourcing are the industries where most companies are expecting pay increases to attract new workers.

The survey notes that the results may have been influenced by employers' behaviour to align the minimum wage with consumer price inflation - but only in industries where the average wage is lower or where a higher share of employees are paid the minimum wage.

The survey for the first six months in 2022 is part of a wider Manpower survey covering four countries in Southern and Eastern Europe, including Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Slovenia, companies from all over the country and from different industries were included. Manpower conducts this survey at the end of each half-year period.

STA, 25 January 2022 - Slovenia's Employment Service has recorded a significant rise in applications for the employment of foreigners last year, announcing on Tuesday that it had received 52,281 work permit applications in 2021, the most since the current system was put in place in 2015.

Slovenia has thus exceeded the previous record of 48,127 work permit applications received in 2019, when employment of foreigners in Slovenia was at its highest in recent years.

Of the 52,281 applications received in 2021, 46,264 were approved and 6,017 were denied.

The increased interest of foreigners in working in Slovenia is also a consequence of structural imbalances in the labour market, with employer demand far outstripping supply.

Foreigners in Slovenia are mostly employed in activities characterised by work in the field and under difficult conditions - construction, transport, manufacturing, catering and hospitality, and agriculture.

The Employment Service said that despite receiving a record number of applications, "the average processing times for applications are within the legal limits and are even getting shorter".

They also pointed out that most potential issues arise due to a lack of procedural knowledge by the applicants, inadequate or incomplete documentation, congestions at certain administrative units, and procedures to ensure that permits and workers are not abused by the employers.

The Employment Service added that it will organise special meetings to inform employers about the procedures as soon as possible, and that it will adjust its work towards taking on more staff and optimising tasks related to processing work permits for foreigners.

STA, 5 January 2022 - The statutory minimum wage in Slovenia is to increase by 4.9% to EUR 1,074 gross as of 1 January, reflecting the increase in inflation last year, the Labour Ministry has announced.

Minister Janez Cigler Kralj decided that the minimum wage for 2022 would be adjusted in equal amount to the rise in consumer prices in the past year after a second round of talks with social partners on Wednesday.

Under the minimum wage act, the wage is adjusted once a year at least to the rise in consumer prices. Available data from the Statistics Office shows annual inflation ran at 4.9% in December.

In a press release, the ministry said the minister's decision reflected the current macroeconomic forecasts, the uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and talks with the social partners.

The rise is much lower from the one proposed by the trade unions, who are disappointed, while the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) suggested it was too high and should be subsidised by the state.

The unions proposed a rise of 10.65% to EUR 1,133.35, Lidija Jerkič, the head of the ZSSS, the country's largest trade union association, told the STA.

They believe the rise should reflect not just the rise in living expenses but also economic growth, real wage growth, the fall in unemployment and in particular the most recent price hikes.

Jerkič said they also believed the rise should be more substantial because the minimum wage amount was based on minimum expenses from 2016, since when "these have increased substantially".

Meanwhile, the GZS said such a rise would be a major burden on businesses, in particular energy-intensive industries and small businesses.

They propose for the state to return part of the money raised through higher wage by granting a subsidy of EUR 30 per employee a month to the worst hit companies, following the model applied in 2021.

The GZS noted that the minimum wage had already risen by 8.9% last year despite consumer prices falling by 1.1% from December 2019 to December 2020, which meant the minimum wage rose by about a tenth in real terms.

The chamber also noted that Slovenia already has one of the smallest differences between the minimum and average wages in the EU. Data from 2019 shows the at risk of poverty rate of those in a job in Slovenia is 3.4%, 15-fold lower than for the unemployed, which shows the minimum wage does it job, said the GZS.

Meanwhile, Branko Meh, the head of the Chamber of Trade Crafts and Small Business (OZS), said they advocated for decent pay and decent work and were not preoccupied that much about the minimum wage.

"However, we do understand large companies, to which a five to ten percent rise in minimum wage means a substantial amount. Some are warning they will be forced into layoffs given such a rise," said Meh.

GZS executive director Mitja Gorenšček noted that the minimum wage could increase further once the government-sponsored bill raising the general income tax relief is adopted.

The new amount of minimum wage is expected to be released in the Official Gazette on 20 January and will apply for work done from 1 January.

STA, 17 December 2021 - The Constitutional Court has annulled the provisions of two legal acts that allow employers to dismiss an employee in an unilateral decision without having to justify the reasons for termination of the contract if the employee meets the conditions for old-age retirement.

The country's top court has reviewed the changes to the employment relationships act and the public employees act on proposal of seven representative trade unions and the Advocate of the Principle of Equality.

The unions argued that the provisions were in contravention with international conventions and treaties, noting that the constitution says that all acts and regulations must comply with the principles of international law and international treaties binding on Slovenia.

The Advocate of the Principle of Equality meanwhile challenged the constitutionality of the regulation by arguing that it constituted age-based discriminatory treatment.

The changes looked to allow termination of employment contract without a justified reason for workers who meet the condition for old-age retirement (usually at the age of 60 and with 40 years of pensionable service).

The government argued that the purpose was to make it easier for employers to terminate an employment contract if they decide that they no longer need an employee who is already eligible for a pension.

The Constitutional Court had stayed the implementation of the provisions, which were made part of the government's seventh economic stimulus law, in mid-February.

It said at the time that in the case of older workers, who have more difficulties finding new jobs than their younger peers, the consequence of terminating the employment contract would not only mean losing a job but could also end their careers.

The effects of an ongoing implementation of the potentially unconstitutional provisions would outweigh the effects produced by the staying of the provisions until the court rules on the matter, the court added then.

In the unanimous annulment decision published on Friday, the Constitutional Court said that the relevant convention required that for every dismissal by the employer there must be a serious, substantiated reason justifying the dismissal.

"There must be valid grounds for dismissal related to the ability or conduct of the worker or to the operational needs of the particular employer," the court added.

It noted that the employer not being obliged to explain the cause of dismissal deprived employees of appropriate legal protection in case of termination of employment, as the regulation does not enable the dismissal reason to be tried.

The termination of employment contracts that have been served to employees on this basis, and whose effect was suspended by the court staying the provisions on 18 February, have ceased to be legally valid and effective.

STA, 16 December 2021 - The number of persons in paid employment stood at an all-time high of 911,820 at the end of October, having increased by 2.4% on the year before and 0.6% on September, the Statistics Office said.

The number of those working for legal and natural persons, and the number of the self-employed rose by a similar share year-on-year, by 2.4% and 2.2%, respectively.

The monthly rise was driven by strong hiring in the manufacturing sector, where payrolls swelled by 0.8% to 207,900 persons. Overall, 15 of the twenty monitored industries recorded employment gains.

This is the fourth consecutive month the number of persons in employment hit an all-time high.

More on this data

STA, 22 October 2021 - The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) has called for action to deal with staff shortages in particular in manufacturing and services, including closing agreements with countries in the region, Ukraine and the Philippines to facilitate import of foreign labour.

Citing surveys by the national statistics office and Eurochambers, the GZS said at least a third of manufacturing companies and a fifth in the services sector were grappling with staff shortages, while the issue was a major problem for the whole economy.

The chamber proposes a series of measures including adapting education, expanding the list of shortage occupations, introducing a special procedure to hire highly-qualified staff from abroad, and measures to retain and attract back staff in Slovenia.

They also propose closing new bilateral agreements with some of the countries in the former Yugoslavia as well as bilateral accords with Ukraine and the Philippines, the countries they say offer "suitable professional profiles."

A virtual meeting was held on Thursday to match representatives of job agencies from the Philippines with employers in Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Czechia and Poland, however the GZS said Slovenia acted more like an observer of best practice in other countries, which have embassies and trade and investment agencies present in the Philippines.

Since Slovenia covers the country from its embassy in Tokyo it is in a disadvantaged position compared to other countries, while procedures to obtain visas and other paperwork for the staff Slovenian companies would like to employ are lengthy and costly.

The chamber thus urged the government to sign an agreement with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration as soon as possible and set up monthly consular days in Manila to allow qualified Philippine staff to be hired by Slovenian companies as well.

STA, 16 October 2021 - Slovenia is among the European countries with the highest levels of stress at work. This is also one of the main reasons for missing work and short-time working, accounting for 50-60% of all lost working days, according to the career and employment portal MojeDelo.com.

A survey carried out as part of the 2018-2021 PSDT programme found that one in four Slovenians experienced anxiety to the point where this began to interfere with their work at least once in the previous month.

Some 10% of the respondents experienced symptoms of depression or anxiety and 25% said they faced burnout in the past year.

The most common factors related to workplace stress are lack of job control, inappropriate demands, lack of support from colleagues and management, conflicts between employees, poor interpersonal relations, workplace violence and job insecurity, the portal quotes the study's findings.

Mental health issues not only have a profound impact on the lives of individuals, but also have a range of detrimental effects on businesses and organisations, such as absenteeism, reduced employee performance and productivity, lower employee motivation and higher costs.

The PSDT programme, running between March 2018 and April 2021, provided support to businesses to manage and prevent psychosocial risk factors.

STA, 2 October 2021 - Amid a prospering situation in the labour market and favourable unemployment trends, employers have been recording the largest structural imbalances between the registered jobless and companies' needs since the 2008 financial crisis. Businesses highlight that the paperwork to hire foreign workers takes too long.

There have been fewer than 70,000 registered as jobless in August, according to data by the Employment Service. However, the latest survey among employers found that some 37% were faced with a shortage of appropriate candidates to fill their job vacancies.

Such issues were most often encountered in healthcare and social care (53%), construction (48%) and manufacturing (45%). Most sought-after candidates include, among others, heavy lorry drivers, simple task workers in manufacturing, construction workers, retail staff, cleaners and servants.

Commenting on the peak structural imbalances in the labour market, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) told the STA that an increase in economic activity had led to fewer new registered unemployed persons and more people being hired. This situation results in an increase in the share of the hard-to-employ.

Structural unemployment and labour shortages are getting worse, the Labour Ministry told the STA, adding that the current structure of the registered jobless called for a thorough breakdown of the statistics and efforts to tackle the issues that prevent people from getting a job.

One of the key reasons for labour shortages is demographic changes, the ministry said, noting that there would have to be more focus on the elderly in the future as they will represent a much more important segment in the labour market.

Responding to labour shortage challenges, companies are investing more in production automation and business process optimisation, said the GZS. However, in labour-intensive industries, such as the hospitality sector, these problems are much harder to solve.

Foreign workers are another solution for some companies, most of them coming from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, according to GZS data.

But procedures regarding foreign labour paperwork take too long due to lengthy waiting times, especially in Ljubljana and Maribor administrative units, the chamber said, noting that other countries had already been taking action to allow companies to hire foreign workers in a matter of few days.

Slovenia has signed bilateral employment agreements with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia to facilitate hiring workers from these countries, but since workers from former Yugoslav countries are harder and harder to find, companies urge the authorities to sign such agreements with Thailand, Ukraine and Russia as well.

"These potential workers come from similar environments culture-wise and have an instilled work ethic," the GZS said.

However, Slovenia has no such bilateral agreements with third countries in place or planned at the moment, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the Employment Service said employers had at their disposal comprehensive support in finding trained staff and other services.

The ministry has also announced additional measures to tackle imbalances in the labour market, such as promoting life-long learning, stepping up training programmes, tweaking employment policy and providing career specific or in-demand career scholarships.