On Friday 17 April 2020, the websites pomahameludom.sk and neprepustaj.sk published the long-awaited forms for submitting of applications for job retention contributions for legal entities and self-employed individuals who are employers. They have two options to choose from:

3A – reimbursement of the wage compensation for the employee not exceeding 80% of his/her average wage, with a cap at EUR 880. It is available only for employees to whom the employer is not able to assign work due to obstacles on the part of the employer (Section 142(4) of the Labour Code), meaning the employer has no work for employee, who stays at home, or

3B – lump-sum contribution covering one part of costs of wages per each employee; the amount depends in the employer’s decline in turnovers.

Each applicant should calculate (or perhaps in an ideal case, try a ‘test’ completion of the report sheets accompanying the application) the total contributions arising from the option 3A (80% of wage compensation for employees facing obstacles at work) and do the same for the option 3B (lump-sum contribution per each employee depending on the decline in turnovers). Then select the option with a higher overall contribution.

The following material changes have been implemented to the government measures since the most recent version:

• The cap of €200 000 per one applicant per month has been removed
• The measure 3B (contributions depending on the decline in turnovers) shall be paid out per each employee. In the previous version of this measure, the contribution was paid only per employees who faced obstacles at work.

Key terms and conditions for eligibility to draw contributions:

• As of 31 December 2019, the applicant was not deemed a company in difficulty (pursuant to EC guideline (not a ‘company in crisis’ pursuant to Commercial Code)
  • if the applicant has been operating for under 3 years, it must not be in liquidation, restructuring or bankruptcy proceedings
  • if the applicant has been operating for over 3 years, the above applies as well; moreover the amount of equity must exceed 50% of the registered capital
• The applicant was established before 1 February 2020.
• The applicant has no outstanding tax payments, health and social insurance contributions, or any outstanding payments to the Labour Office (according to an amendment of the Act on Social Insurance, the above conditions shall be regarded as complied with even in cases where the payments were suspended for the duration of pandemics).
• The contribution is only paid for individuals working under proper employment (i.e. it is not applicable to individuals working under agreements for work or work performance agreements [the so-called dohodári in Slovak legislation], nor is the contribution applicable to external contractors) where the employment was initiated before 1 March 2020 (the contribution cannot therefore be drawn for new employees hired during March or April).
• The contribution cannot be provided for those particular employees and for that time, during which the above receive social insurance allowances (sickness benefit, allowance for leave to care for a family member [abbreviated in Slovak as OČR]) or those on a paid leave.
• The applicant shall not terminate employment of the relevant employee/s by mutual agreement or dismissal for two calendar months following after the calendar month for which the contribution is provided.
• The contributions may not be drawn for employees, for whom any other allowance or contribution is already received by the applicant within the framework of active labour market measures provided by the Office of Labour Social Affairs and Family.

Completed application and an Excel sheet report (applications do not need to be printed nor signed, the original Excel sheet is submitted) is to be submitted by e-mail to the address of the Labour Office in the territorial competence of which the applicant shall retain jobs. Alternatively, it may be submitted via the electronic mailbox of the applicant to the address of the Labour Office in the territorial competence of which the applicant shall retain jobs. In cases where the employer has multiple branches, the application is submitted in the territory, where its registered seat is located. In exceptional cases, the application may be submitted by mail or personally at the Labour Office filing room.

The application for March 2020 must be submitted by 15 May 2020. The applicant, which is submitting its application for April or May, shall submit it by the end of the following calendar month, i.e. the application for April 2020 must be submitted by the end of May 2020.