The Labor Inspectorate imposed fines totaling EUR 77,500 on the Slovak employment agency Stominus for violating the rights of agency workers. It was a model of worker exploitation, the inspectors found.
Due to the suspicion of numerous violations of labor rights, inspectors have been permanently present at the company Stominus and its users since October 2022.
On the basis of inspections, Stominus was served with final decisions on the offense with the imposition of a fine for violations in companies Tomplast (22,000 euros), Don Don (15,500 euros for a legal entity and 2,650 euros for a responsible person), Veplas (9,500 euros for a legal entity and 1,300 euros for a responsible person), Nimrod (28,500 euros for a legal entity and 4,300 euros for a responsible person) and Poultry Ptuj (2,000 euros to a legal entity).
Recourse was not paid, salaries were delayed, there was no documentation
In the case of Tomplast, they found non-delivery of pay slips, non-payment of holiday pay, invalid A1 certificates and failure to report the provision of cross-border services, in Don Don they decided to impose a fine for failure to submit documentation, non-payment of salary within the statutory deadline, invalid A1 certificates and failure to report the provision of cross-border services, in Veplas, however, for not reporting the provision of cross-border services and not submitting the required documentation.
In the case of Nimrod, the Slovakian agency was fined for non-payment of holiday pay, non-handover of pay slips and invalid A1 certificates for workers, and in the case of Perutnina Ptuj, because the referred workers did not perform work there in accordance with the registration at the Employment Agency of the Republic of Slovenia.
The inspectorate specifically emphasized that Stominus did not respond to their calls for the delivery of documentation regarding the users of Iskra ISD – Strugarstvo and Perutnina Ptuj, as a result of which they issued him two payment orders in the total value of 3,000 euros. Both have been served and are final.
“Such exploitation of workers must end,” emphasized the acting chief labor inspector Luka Lukić. It is not just about individual cases of exploitation, but about an established business model, he warned. “At the labor inspectorate, we will do everything to stop such practices and sanction them appropriately,” he announced.
The Ministry revoked the permission to mediate workers
Stominus was registered as an employment agency in Slovakia until December 16, 2021, and from then on it has the status of a commercial company there, without a license to carry out this activity.
It had a branch in Slovenia, registered as an agency for the performance of labor mediation activities, until November 3. The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities revoked her license to carry out activities and deleted her from the register for carrying out the activity of providing workers’ work to users.
They arranged work for workers from Serbia, BiH and North Macedonia, Ukraine
The story became public in March, when the inspectorate explained that they had carried out a large-scale campaign in which, in addition to Stominus, they also took the Slovak labor agency Pertas under scrutiny. These agencies sent a total of 379 workers to the Slovenian companies Tomplast, Nimrod, Mahle Bovec and Mahle Komen, Perutnina Ptuj, Marles hiše, Engrotuš, Plamtex, Iskra ISD – turning, Don Don, Kovinoplastika Lož and Veplas, mainly from Serbia, BiH and North Macedonia, and some from Ukraine.
As many as 138 of them were counted in the Engrotuš store, where, according to the inspectors’ findings, the workers involved worked beyond the legally allowed time, one of them worked 413 hours in a month – on average, he worked every day of the month for at least 13 hours a day.
Source: Rtvslo
