Slovenia: Government anti-coronavirus support schemes for businesses

The package comes on top of the intervention legislation adopted earlier this month and introducing, inter alia, the possibility to apply for a 12-month loan repayment holiday and partial reimbursement of workers' salary compensation. This legislation is yet to enter into force and will likely be further tweaked by the anti-coronavirus relief package, once legislated (only the basic contours have been made public for now).

For businesses, the package puts forward various supporting schemes. These include:

• Full state coverage of all social security contributions plus additional 20 % co-financing of net salary compensation for:
• workers instructed by employers to stay at home; and
• workers who are unable to work due to force majeure (this includes instances of child care / workers unable to get to work)

[NB: It remains to be seen how these measures will be streamlined with the recently adopted intervention act (already) providing for 40 % reimbursement of salary compensation for workers instructed to stay at home (such measures are only available to employers that demonstrate their business was affected by the COVID-19 outbreak).]

• Full state coverage of pension contributions for employees who continue to work during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Immediate state coverage for workers' sick leave (default regime: first 30 working days of absence are covered by the employer)
• Creation of a guarantee scheme and possibility to purchase claims towards Slovenian companies to alleviate liquidity issues [NB: details on these mechanisms not yet available]
• Suspension of corporate income tax pre-payment
• Reduction of payment deadlines to eight days for all state-funded supplies from the private sector
• Suspension of contractual penalties for delays in deliveries to the public sector

Various other measures are proposed, including temporary grant payments and suspension of social contributions for freelancers / self-employed persons affected by the economic fallout, a one-time solidarity check for pensioners with monthly pensions below EUR 700, and a special rescue package targeting farmers.

By way of a (soft/non-mandatory) recommendation, businesses are encouraged to adopt an incentive mechanism on similar terms as applicable in the public sector (a salary bonus range of 10–200 % depending on exposure to / involvement in combating the pandemic).

The measures – which are pending legislation and (generally) an eight-day waiting period before entry into force – are expected to last until 31 May 2020, but may be extended if circumstances so require.

This newsletter was last updated on 25 March 2020 CET 11:30.