Our sister company based in the Czech Republic made it possible for the Czech colleagues to work from home-office by concluding a separate agreement. The Czech Labour Code allows for such arrangements, and it also allows the employer to terminate such agreement. However, we did not find such a possibility in the Slovak Labour Code. So, can we regulate home-office work for our Slovak employees in the employment contract or should we conclude a separate agreement like our Czech colleagues? We want to allow our employees to have home-office for a maximum of 2 working days per week. However, it is important for us that as the employer to be able to decide at any time to cancel the home-office option and make it mandatory for employees to work from the office.
The Slovak legislation on home-office work differs from that of the Czech Republic. According to the Czech Labour Code, a written agreement must be concluded in this respect and the obligation under this agreement can be terminated unless the agreement specifies that it cannot be terminated.
The Slovak Labour Code does not allow conclusion of a separate agreement with respect to home-office work and therefore we do not recommend signing a separate agreement for home-office work for Slovak employees. Such an agreement would most likely be considered an amendment to the employment contract, as it would relate to the terms and conditions of employment, i.e. regulating the workplace and the schedule, which are parts of the employment contract. The Slovak Labour Code only defines specific types of contracts and therefore we think that if you were to enter into such an agreement, it would be considered an amendment to the employment contract. A change of the employment contract is subject to agreement by both parties. Therefore, if you entered into a specific agreement to allow home-office work, you would not be able to terminate this agreement the same way as your Czech colleagues can do. In case you would like to remove this option for a particular employee, you would need to agree with the employee.
If you want to allow employees to work from home-office, e.g. a maximum of 2 working days per week, and explicitly provide for this in writing, in our opinion you can do this, for example, by adding a specific provision on employment benefits to the employment contract. As part of the employment benefits, you provide that the employee may work from a place other than the usual workplace in accordance with the employer’s internal regulations. You will then state in the internal regulation that the employee is entitled to work occasionally from home or from a place agreed between the employee and the employer (e.g. also by e-mail or verbally), up to a maximum of two days per week. You also specify that the employee may also work from home-office if so instructed by the employer, when the employer’s operational needs justify it or in cases arising from the Labour Code.
We also recommend that you specify in the employment contract that the performance of work from the Employee’s place of residence is not considered homeworking or teleworking under Section 52 of the Labour Code. This is because the performance of homework or telework is regulated by the Labour Code and different rules apply to it than to home-office work. We believe that working from home-office for a maximum of 2 working days per week (or work defined in a similar manner within this scope) falls within the exception set out in section 52(2) of the Labour Code: ‘Homework or telework shall not be deemed to be work which the employee performs occasionally or in exceptional circumstances with the consent or agreement of the employer from the employee’s home, provided that the type of work which the employee performs under the contract of employment permits it…’. Just for the sake of completeness, we note that this is the only provision of our Labour Code that indirectly defines home-office work.
In our view, a scheme where the employee works from home for a maximum of 2 days per week (or any other number of days in any other time period) can be considered as occasional home working. This is because there is no indication of the specific days, or even a clear number of days, on which the employee will work from home. Only the maximum number of days on which the employee chooses (or agrees with the employer) to work from home is defined. In our view, this is an employee benefit and not a homeworking or teleworking arrangement. The Slovak Labour Inspectorate also states on its website that work performed through home-office is an employee benefit.
As regards your wish to be able to cancel the option of working from home-office, in our opinion you can regulate it in your internal regulations. It will imply that the employee may work from his/her place of residence for a maximum of 2 working days per week (or any other number of days during a defined period of time). You can also state in the internal regulation that the employer is entitled to determine which specific working days during the defined interval the employee is obliged to work from the regular place of work (the employer’s registered office). You may also define that if the employer does not specify by the end of a certain period at the latest that the employee is to work from the employer’s registered office (for example, by the end of the previous working day), the employee may decide whether or not to take the option to work from his or her place of residence. Finally, you can state that if the supervisor notifies the employee that he or she can no longer take advantage of the occasional home-office work option, the employee will be required to work all days of the workweek from his or her regular place of work.
Based on the above provision in the internal regulation, you will be able to cancel the home-office option by delivering a notice to the employee. Once served, any work by the employee from his/her place of residence will only be possible if the employee and the employer expressly agree to the employee working from his/her place of residence. Home-office will also be possible if you, as the employer, so order, when your operational needs justify it or in cases arising from the Labour Code.
