On the first day of October 2024, the Regulation on the content and method of keeping records of employees will come into force.
This Regulation prescribes the content and method of keeping records of workers employed by the employer, unless otherwise regulated by another regulation.
The purpose of the Regulation is to ensure that employers keep accurate and up-to-date records of their workers.
The new Regulation introduces several important changes and novelties, such as:
Compliance with the GDPR – records of employees contain a number of personal data, some of which are sensitive, special attention should be paid to data protection
More detailed records – records include additional information about workers such as information on professional education, licenses, certificates and other qualifications.
Remote work – new provisions have been introduced regarding the recording of working hours for teleworkers.
Absences and leaves – more detailed records of different types of absences are included, such as paternity leave, caregiver leave, etc.
Temporary assignment of workers – it is also necessary to keep records of workers who have been temporarily assigned to them by a temporary employment agency, and the duration of storage of certain documentation is also regulated for this area
What does the employee record include?
The records of employees include all the data that the employer must keep about their employees, and according to the new Regulation, the records have been reduced from 18 to 13 mandatory data.
According to the Regulation, this includes:
- Name and surname
- Personal identification number (OIB)
- Gender
- Day, month, and year of birth
- Citizenship
- Residence or temporary residence
- Residence and work permit or work registration certificate, if the worker is a third-country national required to have them
- Professional education and special exams and courses that are a condition for performing the job, certificates, licenses, etc.
- Date of commencement of work
- Job title or nature or type of work the worker is employed for
- Type of employment contract concluded
- Date and reason for termination of employment, or termination of work for assigned workers
- Date of submission of the application (start, change, termination) to mandatory insurance for workers as insured persons based on employment, including voluntary pension insurance if the employer participates in its payment, and mandatory health insurance during work abroad
In addition to the mentioned data, it is necessary to keep other data on which the realization of certain rights and obligations from the employment relationship depends.
The employer is also obliged to protect, store, and keep in the original or copy the documents and acts based on which data on workers are entered, changed, or deleted in the record to ensure proof of the accuracy of the data.
Another novelty is the obligation to keep a written review of data on each worker.
Working hours record
The Regulation prescribes the record of working hours and the data it should contain:
- Name and surname of the worker
- Date in the month
- Start of work
- End of work
- Time and hours of downtime, work interruptions, etc., caused by the employer’s fault or other circumstances for which the worker is not responsible
- Total daily working hours
- Fieldwork hours
- Standby hours
- Time of absence from work (rest (daily, weekly, annual), non-working days (holidays and public holidays), hours of inability to work due to temporary incapacity for work, paid leave, paternity leave, etc.)
With a note that for workers whose working hours are distributed in the same duration and the same schedule by days, weeks and months, the employer is not obliged to record in the records of working hours the hours of daily and weekly rest.
Records of the working hours of the employee are kept for the accounting period determined for the payment of the salary.
The duty to keep the working hours record begins on the day the worker starts work and ends on the day the employment relationship of the specific worker ends.
Keeping records
The employee record must be accurate, up-to-date, and protected.
Data security – Since it contains numerous personal data of workers, some of which belong to the sensitive data group, the data must be protected from unauthorized access, loss, or damage.This is ensured by storing documentation in physical form in secure places under lock and key, and digital documentation is protected using passwords, encryption, and backups with limited access.
Updating data – records must be regularly updated and all changes in the status of workers must be recorded (changes in working hours, salary, personal data…).
Retention periods
According to the new Regulation, the data retention periods have also been changed:
General data on employees – 6 years from the end of the year in which the employment relationship ended, except in the case of a labour dispute when the data is kept until the conclusion of the dispute
Written overview of the employee and records of working hours – until the end of the year in which the employment relationship was ended
Documentation related to safety and health at work – Decisions, private documents, certificates and records related to safety at work, injuries at work and occupational diseases are kept within the deadlines prescribed by special regulations
Documentation related to pension insurance – Decisions, private documents and certificates related to the realization of pension insurance rights are kept for 40 years from the end of the year in which the employment relationship ended.
Documentation related to health insurance – Decisions, private documents, certificates, minutes, etc. related to the realization of rights from health insurance, 6 years counting from the end of the year in which the documentation was created, or until the conclusion of the dispute.
Documentation related to the realization of personal care rights, maternity and parental rights – 6 years counting from the end of the year in which the documentation was created, or until the conclusion of the dispute.
Workers’ requests for the protection of employment rights – Decisions, acts and documents of the employer issued in the procedure regarding such requests, 6 years from the end of the year in which the documentation was created, or until the conclusion of the dispute.
Collective agreement – 6 years counting from the expiry of the agreed duration of the collective agreement or from the expiry of the extended application of the legal rules contained in that collective agreement, or until the conclusion of the dispute
Work Regulations – 6 years counting from the end of the year in which the Labor Regulations ceased to be valid, or until the conclusion of the dispute
Other documents, documents and acts related to the realization of rights from the employment relationship or in connection with employment relationship- 6 years counting from the end of the year in which the documentation was created.
Records of persons who perform work for the employer based on other contracts or special regulations
In addition to workers temporarily assigned to work, employers are also obliged to keep records of persons who perform work for the employer based on other contracts or special regulations, such as students who work through the student service, students who attend professional practice with the employer, professional training without establishing an employment relationship…
