Labour hire vs leasing vs recruitment agency in Slovenia

Slovenian law knows two separate activities that companies cover with the same everyday words. The first is zagotavljanje dela delavcev uporabniku (ZUTD Article 163; ZDR-1 Articles 59–63): the worker is employed by the agency and works at your site, under your instructions, with your equipment and inside your production process. The second is posredovanje zaposlitve, job placement (ZUTD Article 25): the agency finds a candidate and refers them to you, and you employ them.

The practical consequence: an offer headed kadrovska agencija tells you nothing yet about what you are buying. Ask who will sign the employment contract with the worker. If the agency, it is agency work and the supplier must be in the register; if you, it is job placement and every employer obligation is yours once the search ends.

At Evroproces the workers always stay employed by us: we source, vet and select the workers ourselves and they work on your project or production line. We do not place candidates into direct employment with the client. How the selection works is on our recruitment agency page; how the assignment itself works is on the labour leasing page.

Agency work involves two contracts and three parties. The agency signs an employment contract with the worker (ZDR-1 Article 59) and a written agreement on the assignment with you (Article 62). The worker follows your instructions (Article 63); the agency pays the wage.

What you pay: the agency invoices you for the time the worker worked at your site. Because the worker must receive the pay and conditions of the collective agreement and internal rules that bind you (ZDR-1 Articles 61 and 63), the price starts from your own pay grade for a comparable position; contributions, allowances and the agency's service come on top. The worker pays nothing.

One consequence buyers tend to overlook: for wages and other employment income for the period the worker worked at your site, you as user undertaking are subsidiarily liable (ZDR-1 Article 62(6)). If the agency does not pay, the worker can claim from you, which is why the supplier's standing and register entry matter.

ZDR-1 places three kinds of limits on the user undertaking. The first is numerical: agency workers may not exceed 25 % of your own headcount unless a sector collective agreement provides otherwise. Agency workers employed by the agency for an indefinite term do not count toward the limit, and the limit does not apply to a small employer, meaning one with ten or fewer employees (Articles 59(3) and 5). If you plan a larger crew, check your sector agreement and ask the agency on what term its workers are employed.

The second is a set of prohibitions: no agency workers to replace striking employees; none if you dismissed a larger number of employees in the previous 12 months; none on jobs where your risk assessment sets time-limited exposure to hazards; none in other cases defined by the sector collective agreement (Article 59(2)). You must notify the agency of a strike or mass dismissal within eight days (Article 59(4)).

The third is equal treatment: during the assignment the worker is covered by ZDR-1, your collective agreement and your internal rules, including the benefits you give your own employees (Article 63(2) and (3)). If the union, works council or workers' representative asks, you must report once a year why you use agency workers and how many (Article 59(5)).

The written agreement between you and the agency must be concluded before work starts and set out the mutual rights and obligations and those of the worker and the user (ZDR-1 Article 62(2)). The law prescribes no form; practice shows what must not be missing:

On assignment the worker must receive written notice of the user, the working conditions and their rights and obligations (Article 62(4)). An agency that cannot show you that notice tells you how the rest of its paperwork is kept. What to demand from a supplier posting into Germany is in our checklist of licences and documents for a staffing partner.

Only an employer that holds the labour ministry's permit and is entered in the register of domestic persons providing workers to a user, or, if based in another EU, EEA or Swiss state, in the record of foreign persons, may provide agency workers (ZUTD Articles 163 and 167). As user undertaking you may accept agency workers only from such an employer (Article 166(2)).

What you risk if you skip the check: a user undertaking that accepts an agency worker from an employer without a permit and register entry is fined EUR 10,000 to 30,000, a user with ten or fewer employees EUR 5,000 to 10,000, and the responsible person EUR 4,000 (ZUTD Article 178). A supplier operating without a permit risks a fine of up to EUR 50,000 (Article 179).

The conditions for registration were tightened by the ZUTD-I amendment (Official Gazette no. 70/2025, in force since 20 September 2025): the bank guarantee is now at least EUR 100,000 instead of EUR 30,000, an agency based in another EU, EEA or Swiss state needs a branch in Slovenia, the main registered activity must be temporary labour supply, and the supplier may have no final fines for labour-law breaches or unpaid wages in the last two years (ZUTD Article 164). Registered agencies had six months from entry into force, until 20 March 2026, to prove they meet the new conditions. A supplier website still quoting a EUR 30,000 guarantee is out of date.

Slovenian agency-work law governs the relationship between you, the agency and the worker while the work is in Slovenia. When a Slovenian agency sends its workers to your project in Austria or Germany, that relationship stays and the host country's rules are added: the A1 certificate for social security, the posting notification and the pay rules of the country where the work is done. To provide agency workers in Germany the agency needs, on top of its Slovenian registration, the German permit under § 1 AÜG (Erlaubnis zur Arbeitnehmerüberlassung). The other route German law knows is a contract for work (Werkvertrag): a subcontractor delivers an agreed scope with its own crew and its own supervision, and does not provide workers to you.

Evroproces d.o.o. is entered in the MDDSZ register (code 111) and holds the German AÜG permit, so we can provide agency workers to user undertakings in Slovenia and Germany, and post them to Austria and Germany as our own employees with A1 certificates and completed notifications. For field work in Germany and Austria we provide and pay for accommodation. What it means when part of a crew arrives as a subcontracted team, and what to demand from any external supplier, is in our post on hiring external EU industrial workers.

Can I employ an agency worker myself once the assignment ends? Yes. The agency may not prevent or restrict it (ZUTD Article 165(1)); you must give agency workers information on vacancies and the same chance of permanent employment as your own staff (Article 166). Nobody may charge the worker for this (Article 165(3)).

What if I need the worker for less time than agreed? An early end to your need is not a ground for ending the worker's fixed-term contract; the agency pays wage compensation until it expires (ZDR-1 Article 60(3)). What that means for your relationship with the agency is for the agreement, which is why the notice period must be written down.

May an agency based in Austria or Croatia provide workers in Slovenia? Yes, if it is entered in the ministry's record of foreign legal and natural persons and, since ZUTD-I, has a branch in Slovenia (ZUTD Articles 164 and 169). Check the record, not only the register.

Does a recruitment agency need a permit for job placement? As a market activity, no; ZUTD does not restrict it, only the business activity registration (SKD 78.100) is needed. A ministry concession is required only to deliver public labour-market services (ZUTD Articles 85 and 86). A register entry therefore tells you something about agency work, not about recruitment consulting.

If you have offers with different labels in front of you, level them with two questions: who will be the worker's employer, and under which registration code is the supplier listed. If you need workers for production, metal industry or a construction site in Slovenia, Austria or Germany, describe the project on our hire workers page: profile, headcount, location, start and duration. We normally reply within 24 hours with availability and tell you which model fits your case. The full service, including posting and documentation, is described on the staffing agency page.