Working time of employees posted on a business trip

• Author: Viktor Krizan
• Pages: 118-127

Working time of employees posted on a business trip

JUDr. Viktor KRIŽAN1, PhD.

Abstract

Posting of workers to a Member State of the European Union und er the law of the

Slovak Republic may b e realised by the institute of business trip, the temporary assignment

of employees to another employer, or agreed place of work abroad. Using the institution of

the business trip opens up many application problems. The author is in his paper focused

on selected application problems of the business trip, relating to wor king time, particularly

when considering working time on a b usiness trip as well as continuous rest after returning

from a business trip, respectively at the end performed work.

Keywords: business trip, wor king time, daily rest, Labour Code, Act on Travel

Allowances, Directive 2003/88/EC.

JEL Classification: K31

1. Business trip in the legislation of the Slovak Republic

The Slovak legal system does not solve the posting of employees by

independent institute; posting is carried out by other institutes through which can

be treated with a temporary place of employment. It is an institute of business trip,

the temporary assignment of employees to perform work for another employer or

agreed place of work abroad.

Every performance of work abroad must be considered as a business trip

according to the section 57 of the Act no. 311/2001 Coll., the Labour Code, as

amended (hereinafter the "Labour Code").2 This is the reason of very frequent use

of this institute. But despite being one of the most important means of changing the

content of the employment contract, the Labour Code does not contain a precise

definition of this term. According Barancová3 business trip can be defined as a

time-limited change of agreed place of work (or regular workplace) in the

employment contract. Other definition of business trip is contained in the Act no.

283/2002 Coll., on Travel Allowances, as amended (hereinafter as the “Act on

Travel Allowances”). This Act regulates provision of compensation of expenses

incurred during business trips, both for employees or appointed persons who act

based on agreements other than the employment contract, persons who are

members of company’s bodies (such as the statutory), etc. According to this Act

business trip is time from the onset of the employee travel to place other than his

regular workplace, including the performance of work in that place until the end of

this journey. A business trip under the Act on Travel Allowances is also journey

1 Viktor Križan - ResearcherID N-2209-2015, Department of Labour Law and Social Security Law,

Faculty of Law, University of Trnava, Trnava, Slovak Republic, viktor.krizan@truni.sk .

2 Highest Court decision No. 7Sžso/39/2010.

3 Barancová, H.: Zákonník práce. Komentár. 4 ed., Bratislava: C. H, Beck, 2015, p. 507.