At today’s 49th extraordinary session, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia will discuss and vote on the proposal of the Act on Intervention Measures to Mitigate the Consequences of the Second Wave of the COVID-19 Epidemic (ZIUOPDVE), adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia on the correspondence session dated 10 November 2020. This is the sixth package of measures (#PKP6), which seeks to mitigate and eliminate the effects and impact of the infectious disease COVID-19 in many areas of the economy, labour and employment, social protection and health care.
The proposal extends the partial subsidy measure for the reduction of full-time work until 30 June 2021, which is the final date by which an employer may order a part-time work for an employee despite the full-time employment contract. The proposal also extends the possibility to temporary lay-off an individual employee until 31 January 2021, whereby an employer must submit an application for reimbursement of benefits paid no later than 15 January 2021. The period to benefit the deferred payments of obligations under the existing loan agreements as well as newly approved loans during the validity of #PKP6 is being prolonged. Moreover, the guarantee scheme of the Republic of Slovenia for liquidity loans under the ZDLGPE is slightly changing.
As before, this package also introduces some new measures, of which we highlight (i) a partial reimbursement of uncovered fixed costs for most endangered undertakings and sole proprietors in the period between 1 October 2020 and 31 December 2020, whereby the eligible period may be extended by the Government’s decision for a maximum of six months, (ii) a possibility of concluding a fixed-term employment contact without announcing of a vacancy, but no later than 31 August 2021, (iii) a simplified procedure to inform the Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia before starting work at home via a form available on the website of the mentioned inspectorate, (iv) work allowance in grey and red zones in the amount of 30 percent of the salary base, regardless of the declaration of an epidemic, (v) a possibility of granting a deferral of payment of tax or contribution for up to two years and a possibility of granting the payment of tax in a maximum of 24 monthly instalments over a period of 24 months, and (vi) a possibility of holding a virtual assembly during an epidemic.
The proposal also brings a significant increase in penalties for individuals who shall not respect the prohibitions and restrictions on gathering of people in public places during an epidemic. For such an offence, an individual may be fined between EUR 1,000 and EUR 10,000. An individual who shall publicly call for a violation of regulations or orders by which the competent authority prohibited or restricted the gathering of people in public places in order to limit the spread of an infectious disease, or, contrary to the latter, shall organise a gathering of people in public places, may be fined between EUR 1,500 and EUR 15,000.
