European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
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An employer is obliged to provide education, training and further training to workers if the needs of the working process require so or if education, training or further training may prevent the cancellation of the employment contract for reasons of incompetence or for business reasons. In accordance with the needs of education, training and further training of workers, the employer has the right to refer the worker for education, training and further training. Education, training and further training are defined as a right and obligation of the employer and the worker alike.
The duration and the course of education and the rights of the contracting parties during and after the education are to be laid down in a contract on education and/or a collective agreement. A worker who is undergoing education, training or further training has the right to absence from work to prepare for or take exams, at least when the worker takes an exam for the first time.
The employer must ensure equal treatment in respect of the personal circumstances regarding access to training, education, and requalification.
A temporary work agency is obliged to provide the worker with education, training and further training as described above. The temporary work agency and the user undertaking must lay down the education, training and further training of the worker during their assignment to the user undertaking.
In collective agreements, social partners specify additional rules regarding education and training. Most collective agreements (24 out of 26) incorporate at least rudimentary education regulations if the employer refers the worker for education and (less frequently) if the person pursues education on own initiative. If the employer refers the worker for education, the employer must bear the expenditures, and the time spent on education is considered working time. Collective agreements also determine paid or unpaid leave when the worker takes exams for the first time. However, collective agreements are limited to a modest refinement of legal provisions. While some are more specific on reimbursement of expenses, others provide for paid absence for education or for the right to unpaid absence for these purposes. According to Franca (2021, p. 509), there is still a potential for a joint cooperation of unions and employers in the recognition of needs and the planning of knowledge development, inclusion in lifelong learning and provision of funds.
According to the 2020 Continuing vocational training survey, 81.6% of all companies allow their employees to attend internal or external education or training programmes (i.e. actions and activities whose main objective is to acquire new knowledge and skills or develop and improve the existing ones and are at least partially funded by the enterprise for its employees). These findings represent a drop of more than five percentage points from the 2015 survey (Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, 2022). Large firms with 250 or more employees had the highest proportion of training participants (64% of all staff). Out of total employees, 51% participated in training courses. The most frequent trainings were in the information, communication, financial, and insurance industries. Construction firms had the lowest education participation rate of 20%.
Eurofound (2015), Slovenia: Employers obligation to provide skill development plans or training, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/employers-obligation-to-provide-skill-development-plans-or-training/slovenia
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