Andrej Zorko from the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia (ZSSS) warns of a legal intervention in the labour market in the area of farming, which will enable the introduction of a "Hlapec, s. p." (self-employed farmhand status)

The fraudulent practices of which the Counseling Office for Workers warns, appear in a number of areas and are not connected to only one worker’s vocational profile, says Mr. Lukić. First, he points to the introduction of disproportionately high non-competition clauses in employment contracts. "We have an example of an iron worker, who has a 10,000 euro non-competition clause in his contract, which is completely incomprehensible for physical work," warns Lukić.

"The creativity of fraudulent workers continues in the form of liquidated damages, as employers determine penalties for individual breaches of the contract, such as being late for work, equipment damage and similar," warns Lukić and adds that such practices are contrary to work legislation, according to which employers cannot simply determine liquidation damages but have to determine the employee’s guilt through formal procedure.

Enforcement procedures without a legal basis
"The champions in creativity among employers are those who use fictitious enforcement procedures. In these cases employers launch enforcement procedures against a worker, enclosing any kind of document or no document at all. The procedure runs automatically and the courts don’t verify the debtor’s claims." Lukić warns that in such cases workers have only eight days to lodge an appeal, which is sometimes a difficult task for seasonal workers, which are already home, or for truck drivers who spend many months on the road. As a result the enforcement procedure continues, regardless whether it was justified or not.