Just before the new year, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the seventh anti-corona law, called Act Determining Intervention Measures to Assist in Mitigating the Consequences of the Second Wave of COVID-19 Epidemic Intervention (“ZIUPOPDVE” or “PKP7”), which entered into force on December 31st 2020. PKP7 brings several additional measures in the field of economy, which should facilitate companies to cope with the epidemic, preserve jobs and enable the survival of activities that are not allowed to operate or act truncated. One of such measure is the obligation to pay a crisis benefit, presented below.
According to the provisions of PKP7, employers in the private sector are required to pay a crisis benefit of EUR 200 upon payment of the December salary to employees who performed work in December 2020, regardless of whether the employee performed work at the employer’s headquarters, from home or elsewhere.
An employee whose last paid salary (for the month of November 2020) does not exceed twice the minimum wage is entitled to the crisis benefit, which means that his last paid gross salary may not exceed EUR 1,881.16. From the payment of the crisis benefit in the amount of EUR 200, no social security contributions or advance payment of personal income tax are calculated and paid.
When calculating twice the last paid salary, all components of the salary are considered, which, in addition to the basic salary, are also part of the salary for work performance and benefits, and the payment for business performance, if agreed in a collective agreement or employment contract. If the last paid monthly salary of an employee exceeds twice the minimum wage, the employee is not entitled to a crisis benefit.
If the employee has not worked for a whole month, he is entitled to a proportionate share of the crisis benefit. It should be clarified that the employee is entitled to the crisis benefit for a holiday and other non-working day determined by law, if he would actually work on that day, and the crisis benefit is not due to him for any other forms of absence from work, such as due to temporary waiting for work, use of annual leave, etc. If an employee has a part-time employment contract, he is also entitled to a crisis benefit in proportion to the working time for which he has concluded an employment contract, unless the employee works part-time in special cases in accordance with the law governing employment.
Funds for the payment of the crisis benefit are provided in the budget of the Republic of Slovenia. In order to reimburse the paid crisis benefit to employees, the employer must submit a statement via the eDavki portal, stating that he has paid the crisis benefit to the employees.
The declaration is expected to be available in the second half of January and must be submitted by the end of February 2021 at the latest.
