Since October 1st, 2024 the Priority Response Division has been officially operational in Slovenia. This is a specialized unit of the Labour Inspectorate. Its task is conducting inspections in cases of serious violations of labour law.
The Division’s role
The Division is responsible for promptly intervening following:
- reports of violations;
- risk analyses; or
- any other indicator highlighting the presence of systemic violations of workers’ rights
Controls also cover the irregular employment of foreign workers and non-compliance with labour market regulations.
Learn more about the regulation for posting workers to Slovenia.
Since its establishment, one of the key objectives of the Division has been ensuring efficient cooperation with regional units and other institutions. In fact, collaboration and synergy during interventions are fundamental in order to guarantee the effectiveness of inspections.
Publication of the first results
Four months after the beginning of the Priority Response Division’s operations, the Slovenian Labour Inspectorate published the first results of the actions undertaken by the specialized unit.
Since its constitution, the Division has issued 140 actions. Inspections were conducted on more than 30 companies. They resulted in the implementation of 80 infringement measures and 60 administrative procedures.
Among these measures taken, inspectors have ordered 21 decisions prohibiting the work of workers. Such decisions temporarily prohibited work activities, the use of work equipment or impaired the entire productive chain until the identified violations were resolved.
Some of the major violations registered by the Division are the following:
- Abuse of temporary agency work or providing workers to a user without proper legal grounds;
- Non-compliance with obligations related to the posting of workers abroad;
- Infringements in the area of employment, self-employment and work of foreigners, in particular regarding the validity of work permits for foreigners;
- Violations in the area of occupational health and safety, working equipment and working environment. Inspectors also found inadequacies in the accommodation conditions for foreigners in some cases. Great attention has been paid to the topic of risk prevention and improving working conditions.
The new Division’s success
Key to the success achieved in the past months is mainly attributed to the holistic approach adopted to deal with the most complex and wide inspections. In fact, active and intensive cooperation between the Division and other authorities, such as the Police, the Health Inspectorate and the Infrastructure Inspectorate, has proven to be fundamental.
Therefore, the Priority Response Division has demonstrated, in a relatively short period of time, its effectiveness and it has shown to be strategically oriented to deal with cases that require a rapid response and a global approach. This is also a result of the extensive and precise work of the most experienced inspectors.
The Slovenian Labour Inspectorate remains thus committed to protecting workers’ rights and promoting compliance with labour legislation. It also encourages all individuals and organizations to report suspected violations in order to contribute to guaranteeing more legal and safer working environments across the territory.
