Collective bargaining in Slovenia

Collective bargaining in Slovenia is highly structured. In the private sector, collective bargaining takes place between unions and employers at industry and company levels. However, national bargaining for the private sector as a whole ceased at the end of 2005 following a decision by the employers to withdraw from it. The agreement that had previously covered the entire private sector, the General Collective Agreement for the Non-commercial Sector, was terminated in 2005.

In the public sector, there is an agreement covering the entire non-commercial sector and separate agreements for different parts of it.

Industry-level agreements must be registered with the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.

Company-level bargaining is very important and supplements sectoral bargaining in most sectors. In Slovenia, major (cross-sectoral) agreements between social partners or increases in the minimum wage prescribed by the government do not exist.

Collective agreements are legally binding. In the private sector, wage bargaining is coordinated at sectoral level. Sector-level collective agreements contain minimum standards, which can be changed only for the better by lower-level (company-level) collective agreements. In the public sector, there is a centralised system for determining wages and other rights. The main trend in collective bargaining is decentralisation (Eurofound, 2013).

Collective wage bargaining coverage among private sector establishments stood at 68% in 2019, according to European Company Survey 2019 data.

European Company Survey 2013 data show that the coverage of collective agreements stood at 78% in 2013, which indicates that the coverage is decreasing.

Collective wage bargaining coverage of employees

Sources: Eurofound, European Company Survey 2013/2019 (including private sector companies with establishments with more than 10 employees (NACE codes B–S), the question in the survey was a multiple choice question and multiple responses were possible); Eurostat [earn_ses10_01], [earn_ses14_01], [earn_ses18_01] (including companies with more than 10 employees (NACE codes B–S, excluding O), with a single response for each local unit); OECD and AIAS, 2021.

For a long time, the dominant level of bargaining and wage-setting in Slovenia was sectoral level, but the current trend in collective bargaining is decentralisation.

Working time is defined by legislation in Slovenia. Collective agreements specify the statutory weekly working time, which is 40 hours.

Levels of collective bargaining, 2022

Articulation

In general, agreements at a lower level can only improve the arrangements reached at a higher level. However, the 2006 Collective Agreements Act introduced a provision under which a higher-level agreement can specifically provide for lower-level agreements to worsen conditions. It must be stressed, however, that few agreements implement this provision in practice.

Bargaining rounds take place throughout the year. There is no specific period or pattern over the year.

In Slovenia, there are no pace-setting collective agreements or ‘trendsetting sectors’ that establish a framework for other sectors. There is no intersectoral collective agreement in the private sector at the moment. There is no actual coordination of collective bargaining but there is some pattern bargaining (across different sectors). Vertical coordination also plays a part because the negotiators from employers and trade unions also represent different companies, and thereby the rights agreed at the lower levels have an impact on the higher levels of collective bargaining.

Some sectoral collective agreements that provide lower levels of rights for employees than other sectoral collective agreements, such as the collective agreement for the textile, clothing, leather and leather-processing industry, are used by employers when negotiating other sectoral collective agreements to try to lower the standards for employees.

With regard to extension mechanisms, Articles 12 and 13 of the Collective Agreements Act state the following.

• If a collective agreement on one or more activities is concluded between one or more representative trade unions and one or more representative employer organisations, one of the parties may propose to the minister responsible for labour the extension of the validity of the whole collective agreement or a part of it to all employers in an activity or activities for which the agreement has been concluded.

• The minister recognises the extended validity of the whole or part of the collective agreement if the agreement has been concluded between one or more representative trade unions. The same applies if the agreement has been concluded between one or more employer organisations whose members employ more than half of all employees of employers for whom an extension of the collective agreement has been proposed.

• In the minister’s decision on extending the validity of the whole or a part of the collective agreement, they are bound by the proposal from the parties to the agreement.

• The minister recognises the extended validity of the whole or part of a collective agreement through a decision that is published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.

Derogation from minimal standards is stipulated in some collective agreements. It is possible to derogate from those collective wage agreements through an agreement between the representative company trade union (or national trade union) and the employer, mainly in order to save jobs. This provision came into force separately for each of the collective agreements in Slovenia, mostly from 2006 onwards (Eurofound, 2015).

Conditions for rescinding a collective agreement and the rescission period are determined by the parties to a collective agreement. If a collective agreement does not contain a rescission period it may be terminated within six months. Collective agreements concluded for a definite period cannot be rescinded prematurely (Collective Agreements Act, Article 16).

Article 17 of the Collective Agreements Act stipulates that, after a collective agreement expires, provisions of the procedural part that regulate the rights and duties of employees and employers should still be applied until a new contract is concluded. Such provisions relate to the conclusion of employment contracts, rights and duties that apply during employment relationships, the termination of employment contracts, pay and other personal remuneration and reimbursement for work, and occupational safety and health. However, they only apply for one year at the most, unless otherwise specified by the parties.

There are no peace clauses in the collective agreements in Slovenia. Nevertheless, almost all collective agreements contain a ‘positive and negative performance duty’ clause, in which the parties bind themselves to pursuing the proper enforcement of the collective agreement and to respect its stipulations. This clause is almost a general regulation, and is contained in the part of a collective agreement specifying obligations. In the case of the breach of a collective agreement, the trade union has at its disposal mechanisms for exercising workers’ rights and is not limited by a commitment to hold industrial peace.