The Act Determining Interim Measures for Mitigation and Remedy the Consequences of the COVID-19 (»ZZUOOP« or fifth anti-coronavirus package »PKP 5«) came into effect on Saturday, 23 October 2020, the law extends some measures that have been taken so far to alleviate the consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic until the end of the year, or until June 2021 at the latest, and introduces some new measures.
Below is the summary of the most important measures introduced by the "PKP 5".
Compensation in case of waiting for work at home
The law extends the possibility of subsidized waiting for work at home until the end of December 2020, with an option to extend this measure for an additional 6 months, i.e. until June 30, 2021. An employee waiting for work at home is entitled to compensation of 80% of salary. To employers, who estimate a decline in income of more than 20 percent in 2020 relative to 2019 (or relative to the average monthly revenues in 2019, if they did not operate throughout the whole year, or until 12 March 2020, if they did not operate in 2019), due to the epidemic, the state will reimburse 80% of the paid compensation, but not more than EUR 892.50.
Partial subsidization of shortened full-time
The measure of subsidizing shortened full-time has also been extended until the end of 2020 with the possibility of extension. This measure sets fixed amounts of subsidies, ranging from EUR 112 to 448 per month, depending on the working time.
Compensation for parents (force majeur)
Parents who are absent from work due to obligation to look after their the child up to and including the 5th grade of elementary school due to objective circumstances (closure of kindergartens and schools) or because of quarantine order for the child, are entitled to 80% salary compensation, which will be fully reimbursed by the state. This measure is valid from 1 September 2020 and is available for all the employers.
Compensation due to ordered quarantine
The employee is obliged to inform the employer within 24 hours that he has been ordered quarantine and to provide them with the order on quarantine within 3 days of its receipt.
The amount of compensation depends on the reason for issuing the quarantine order and amounts to:
- 100% for an employee who has been quarantined due to contact with an infected person in the course of work (at the workplace);
- 80% for an employee who received a quarantine order on arrival in Slovenia, if the country from which he came was on the green or orange list at the time of his departure, however after his departure the country was placed on the red list and for an employee to whom the quarantine was ordered due to contact with an infected person outside the performance of work;
- if an employee went to the country on the red list, he is not entitled to compensation, unless he went to the red country due to certain personal circumstances (death of a partner, parents, child, birth of a child or summons to court).
The self-employed persons are entitled to a compensation of EUR 250 for each quarantine.
Basic income for the self-employed
The fifth anti-coronavirus package reintroduces the basic income for the self-employed, shareholders and farmers whose income in 2020 is estimated to have fallen by more than 20% (as in case of waiting for work at home). The basic income is EUR 1,100 per month, of which EUR 400 for social security contributions.
Short-term absence from work due to illness
A novelty is the possibility of short-term absence from work due to illness without a medical certificate, up to three consecutive working days at most once in an individual calendar year.
Employee testing
The employer's payment for testing workers on SARS-CoV-2 is not considered a credit rating under "PKP 5".
Help for the companies
The guarantee scheme for corporate liquidity loans will be extended for half a year, until the end of June 2021. The loan repayment period is a maximum of five years, and the loan is not intended for companies in difficulty, related companies, companies based abroad and companies in tax havens.
The possibility for companies to apply for a deferral of the loan introduced by »PKP 1« has been extended – the application must be submitted by the end of November 2020.
The Slovenian Enterprise Fund offers companies microloans in the amount of EUR 5,000 to 25,000. The call is open until 7 December 2020. In addition, SMEs can apply for the tender of the Slovenian Enterprise Fund to cover the costs of purchasing protective equipment until the end of October.
SID Bank offers companies loans in the amount of EUR 100,000 to 7 million for SMEs or up to EUR 12 million for large companies.
In addition, the Spirit Slovenia Agency has published a tender for research and development projects to eliminate the consequences of COVID-19, under which companies can apply for a subsidy of up to EUR 300,000.00. The application deadline is December 1, 2020.
