Temporary work agencies and foreign workers in Slovenia: when an assignment is lawful

An agency may supply workers to a user undertaking in Slovenia only once it holds a licence from the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (MDDSZ, 2026) and an entry in the register. It may assign a foreign worker only where that worker has free access to the labour market, a single permit issued on the basis of consent, or an EU Blue Card. The conditions sit in the Labour Market Regulation Act (ZUTD) of 2010 and the Act on the Employment, Self employment and Work of Foreigners (ZZSDT) of 2015.

The licence and the register: what the ministry actually checks

Supplying workers to a user undertaking is not an ordinary commercial activity. The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities issues the licence and enters the operator in the register of domestic and foreign legal and natural persons carrying out the activity. The procedure and the list of annexes are published on the SPOT business portal (2026). Without the register entry there is no lawful assignment, even where a contract with the user is signed and the worker is already on site.

The conditions the ministry verifies before entry, as the SPOT portal sets them out (2026), are these.

• Supply of temporary work must be the operator's principal registered activity, not a secondary code in the business register.
• No fine may have been imposed in the preceding two years for breaches of the rules on employment relationships, the employment and work of foreign nationals, occupational safety and health, or the labour market.
• The operator must have no outstanding obligations from payment for work in the preceding two years and no outstanding tax obligations.
• A bank guarantee securing workers' wage claims must be lodged.
• Staffing, organisational and premises conditions must be met.

The entry is not a one off. The agency must file an auditor's report each year by 30 June for the preceding year. Missing that date is the quietest way to lose standing: agency and user usually carry on assigning workers until the first inspection shows the report was never filed.

The four positions in which a foreign worker may be assigned

The second question is separate from the first. Even an agency holding a valid licence and a register entry may not assign any foreign worker it likes. Under the two acts, assignment is lawful only where the worker holds one of the following statuses.

Outside those four positions there is no assignment. The most common misreading in practice is the assumption that consent for employment with a named employer also covers work at the user undertaking the agency sends the worker to. In agency work the employer is the agency, the user is not the employer, and the consent must therefore be issued to the agency and for the work the worker will actually perform. Where the job description at the user differs materially from the one in the consent, that is work outside the permit rather than an internal reassignment. The issuing procedure and its deadlines are covered in the single permit procedure in Slovenia.

Enforcement, timeline and the risk the user carries

Enforcement rests with the Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia, while the ministry issues the agency licence and may withdraw it. At the user's premises an inspector normally looks at two things first: whether the agency was in the register on the day of the assignment, and whether each assigned foreign worker holds one of the four statuses above. Both are verifiable before work starts, which is also why they are the easiest breaches to prove. The consequences for an employer, including a ban on employing foreign workers, are set out in the hiring ban and inspectorate fines.

The timeline has two strands that do not overlap. The first is the agency's standing: the licence and the register entry before the first assignment, then the auditor's report each year by 30 June. The second is the worker's standing: consent from the Employment Service of Slovenia and the single permit, both required before the first working day at the user, not before the supply contract is signed. A user that fixes the start date around worker availability rather than around the permit issue date risks a first week worked with no legal basis at all.

On cost, the bank guarantee is the heaviest part of entering the activity, because it is a standing obligation rather than a one off fee. It connects to the condition on outstanding wage obligations: an agency that ran late on payments in the preceding two years does not meet the condition even if the debt has since been settled. That is why users selecting an agency increasingly ask for a dated register extract rather than a compliance statement.

Which occupations are exempt from the labour market test, and where the procedure shortens, is covered in the shortage occupations list.

For a user undertaking the conclusion is short. Verify two things before the first working day: the agency's entry in the ministry register, and each assigned foreign worker's status under one of the four legal bases. Both are a matter of two documents rather than legal judgement, so both can be done on the day the assignment is agreed.