Are the supporting documents for the additional days of leave specified or prescribed? This will be discussed in the article below.
Number of leave days
Article 159 of the Labour Relations Act (ZDR-1) stipulates that an employee acquires the right to annual leave upon entering into an employment relationship. Annual leave may not be less than four weeks in any calendar year, regardless of whether the worker works full-time or part-time. The minimum number of days of annual leave a worker may take shall depend on the distribution of working days in the week for each worker. However, a longer period of annual leave may be laid down in a collective agreement or an employment contract, as provided for in Article 160 of the ZDR-1.
Evidence for additional days of leave according to ZDR-1
ZDR-1 does provide for additional annual leave days in certain cases. These are for older workers, disabled workers, workers with at least 60 % physical disability and workers who care for and look after a child in need of special care and protection in accordance with the rules governing family benefits. They are entitled to at least three additional days of annual leave. Workers are also entitled to one additional day of annual leave for each child under the age of 15, as provided for in Article 159 of the ZDR-1.
However, the ZDR-1 does not specify how the cases in which workers are entitled to additional days are to be demonstrated. This was also confirmed by the Information Commissioner in his opinion. The Information Commissioner pointed out that the law does not provide what si to be construed as appropriate proof of a certain fact, which is therefore left to the agreement of the parties.
While the Information Commissioner does not find it controversial for an employee to submit, for example, a decision or part of a decision of the social work centre (CSD) on the care allowance to the employer for the purpose of claiming additional days of leave, the Information Commissioner recalls the principles relating to the processing of personal data as laid down in Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation. Personal data should be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which they are processed (‘minimum data scope’). This means that the employer is only entitled to data that show, for example, that the child in question is a child in need of special care and protection under the rules governing family benefits. Other information that does not demonstrate the above may be omitted in the document. Alternatively, the relevant part of the decision could be presented for inspection only and the employer could make an official note of this, e.g. noting the decision number.
Whether the evidence for additional days of leave is prescribed by the collective agreement
For example, Article 47 of the Collective Agreement for the Education and Training Sector in the Republic of Slovenia provides, inter alia, that, depending on the social and health conditions of the worker, i.e. including a worker who cares for and protects a severely or moderately physically, severely or moderately mentally handicapped person, the annual leave shall be increased by 5 days. However, the Collective Agreement also does not make the granting of additional days conditional on the submission of specific evidence. Thus, the Collective Agreement does not restrict this, e.g. by decision to grant personal assistance or by having the same permanent address. This means that if the condition of the Collective Agreement is indeed fulfilled, the employee is entitled to an additional 5 days of leave.
Written by attorney and partner Katarina Emeršič Polić, mag. prav.