Slovenia's ban on hiring foreign workers and labour inspectorate fines
A Slovenian hiring ban runs for one, two or five years. The Labour Inspectorate carried out 11,247 inspections in 2025 and recorded 18,215 breaches.
An employer given a final fine for certain offences is barred from employing and engaging foreign nationals for one, two or five years. The ban sits in article 42 of the Employment, Self-employment and Work of Foreigners Act. Since 2025 the list of those employers is public and is published by the Employment Service of the Republic of Slovenia.
How long the ban runs and for what
The length of the ban does not depend on the size of the fine. It depends on which article was breached.
| Basis for the ban | Duration |
|---|---|
| Final fine under article 52 or 58 of the ZZSDT | 2 years from finality |
| Final fine under article 21 of the ZPDZC-1 or the first three indents of article 23 | 2 years from finality |
| Final fine under article 54, 55, 59 or 65 of the ZZSDT | 1 year from finality |
| Final conviction for human trafficking, enslavement, abuse of prostitution or breach of fundamental workers' rights | 5 years from finality |
The two year ban therefore follows employing a foreign national without consent or without free access to the labour market, and every form of undeclared employment. The one year ban follows lighter but more frequent offences, among them failure to provide minimum living and hygiene standards and failure to return a seasonal work permit within the prescribed deadline.
Some bans also bite on the extension of consent to a single permit, for example for employers that do not give notice of termination in writing, do not pay premiums for night work, overtime or work on Sundays and public holidays, or conclude contracts contrary to the Employment Relationships Act.
The fines that trigger the ban
| Offence | Fine for the employer | Fine for the responsible person |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary work agency concludes a contract with a foreign national without consent (ZZSDT article 52) | 10,000 to 75,000 EUR | 500 to 5,000 EUR |
| Failure to provide minimum living or hygiene standards (ZZSDT article 54) | 3,000 to 30,000 EUR | 500 to 2,500 EUR |
| Failure to return a seasonal work permit (ZZSDT article 55) | 3,000 to 30,000 EUR | 500 to 2,500 EUR |
| Undeclared employment by an employer that is not an individual (ZPDZC-1 article 23) | 5,000 to 26,000 EUR | 500 to 2,500 EUR |
| Failure to require proof of lawful residence from a third-country national (ZPDZC-1 article 23) | 2,500 to 5,000 EUR | 1,200 to 2,500 EUR |
| Failure to keep a copy of that proof throughout the employment (ZPDZC-1 article 23) | 1,200 to 2,500 EUR | 1,200 to 2,500 EUR |
The last two rows are the ones employers overlook. The Prevention of Undeclared Work and Employment Act requires two things of an employer, that before concluding the employment relationship it requires proof of lawful residence from a third-country national, and that it keeps a copy of that proof throughout the employment. This is Slovenia's version of the European right to work duty compared in the review of right to work verification checks across the EU. The offence is complete with a missing copy in the file, not only with an unlawful hire.
The public register and the 2025 inspection data
The amendment published in Official Gazette RS, no. 32/25 created an official register of employers, foreign employers and work contractors barred from employing and engaging foreign nationals. The Employment Service publishes the company name and seat, or the name and address, together with the period of the ban, and removes the entry when the ban expires. The list is published at the start and in the middle of each month. Data on final fines is sent to the Employment Service ex officio by the Labour Inspectorate and the Financial Administration.
The consequence is therefore not only monetary. An employer on the list is visible to clients, unions and candidates, and at the same time is cut off from the labour supply that brought it into the procedure.
In 2025 the Labour Inspectorate carried out 11,247 inspections, recorded 18,215 breaches and issued 8,015 measures. In the employment relations field it carried out 5,943 inspections and recorded 8,592 breaches of labour law, up from 7,733 in 2024. Most breaches were recorded in construction (19.2 percent), followed by manufacturing (11.5 percent), hospitality and tourism (10.4 percent), transport and storage (9.6 percent) and retail (5.1 percent).
Breaches of the foreign employment act itself numbered 52. Alongside the 26 accommodation cases there were 11 breaches of article 7, paragraph 4, where employers allowed foreign nationals to perform work other than the work for which consent had been given. That is a warning for any employer that moves a worker to a different post after arrival without a new written approval.
How these duties connect into the wider chain of employer responsibility across the EU is set out in the review of the sponsorship compliance chain. Werklist maintains this documentation for employers in Slovenia, and the scope of that work is set out on the employers page.
A hiring ban is a delayed consequence. The full misdemeanour procedure runs between the offence and the entry on the list, so employers feel the effect at the point when a project already depends on a new crew. The date that counts is not the date of the inspection but the date the decision becomes final.
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