Article 169 of the Employment Relationships Act (ZDR-1) stipulates that in exceptional circumstances when the life and health of people are endangered, the place of work specified in the employment contract may be temporarily changed without the employee's consent. According to the Ministry responsible for labour, it is possible to temporarily order work from home based on this provision not only during an epidemic but also in circumstances where measures are needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (for example in the case of quarantine, self-isolation or other measures taken by the employer to prevent infection).
When ordering work from home, employers must pay special attention to the following. As far as working time is concerned, employers must keep a record of working time, with the possibility of a simplified agreement for the employee to report data on the number of working hours per day only if they are different from 8 hours. It is common to agree on compensation for the use of employee’s resources, and advisable for the employer to consider and discuss issues related to professional secrecy and information security. Simplification of occupational safety and health measures is particularly important for employers, as a risk assessment is not always necessary. In the event of extraordinary circumstances, the employer often has to order work from home in an expedited procedure and is not able to implement all the measures prescribed by law. Given that, in the Ministry's opinion, job posts for which work from home is ordered are generally less risky and non-harmful jobs, the employer may replace the elaboration of risk assessment with appropriate instructions for safe and healthy work, such as instructions for workplace arrangements, questionnaires and photographs, and consult the occupational safety expert on the relevance and sufficiency of the measures based on feedback.
Due to extraordinary circumstances, the employer must inform the Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia about the ordering of work from home as soon as possible to the e-mail address prijave.irsd@gov.si. It is recommended that the notification contains information about the worker, the type and place of work and the time for which the measure is intended.
