Slovakia: new rules extending application of higher-level collective agreements

A controversial amendment to the collective bargaining act overcame the President’s veto and is going into force on January 1, 2014.  The law will now provide for the possibility for a higher-level collective agreement, if negotiated by some employers in a specific sector, to be extended to other employers in the same sectors even if they didn’t negotiate it and without their consent.  (Ref.  130789)
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General situation in Slovakia. There are two types of collective agreements under Slovakian law:

  • Company collective agreements, negotiated between an employer and the unions present in the company. They only commit these two parties.
  • ‘Higher-level’ collective agreements, negotiated at sectoral level, i.e. by the sector’s union and employers’ organizations. In theory, these agreements only commit employers affiliated with the associations representing them, whose list is annexed to the colle
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