Voluntary Help-Desk Slovakia: know your rights at work

Are you, perhaps, living through a situation of the "twenty poisons"? Here is an attempt to help your rights, your questions and your complaints reach the right authority safely: VOLUNTARY HELP-DESK SLOVAKIA https://forms.gle/U7pUB9zURLLSmbiGA Let us not decide for ourselves whether a problem is small or large — let us have it resolved in time.

Even one of the following things being done to you may be unlawful or against your rights:

1. Confiscating documents: an employer or another person confiscating or holding on to your residence card or passport.

2. Forced labour: making you work against your will, or using fear, threats or pressure to stop you leaving a job.

3. Work outside the agreement: making you do work not stated in the contract, or sending you to work at another company without your consent.

4. Threats about residence or deportation: frightening you by saying your residence card will be cancelled, that you will be deported, or that a complaint will be made against you to the authorities.

5. Violence or abuse: physical violence, humiliation, intimidation, psychological pressure, blackmail, unwanted physical contact, or forcing you into sexual activity against your will.

6. Not giving you the employment contract: not giving you a copy of the employment contract signed by both parties before you start work.

7. No valid work permit: not holding the work permit or related authorisation required for your employment, or not giving you a copy of it.

8. Not paying the agreed wage: not paying the wage stated in the contract on time, or paying less than agreed.

9. Improper deductions: deducting money from your wage without clear information or legal grounds, or deducting it against invented debts or liabilities.

10. No payslip: not giving you a payslip showing each month's wage and the deductions made.

11. Misuse of a power of attorney: misusing a power of attorney you have granted, or acting against your interests on the strength of it.

12. Pressure to sign what you do not understand: using fear, threats or pressure to make you sign documents you disagree with or do not understand.

13. Not letting you start the agreed work: not letting you begin the work stated in the contract, failing to make the necessary arrangements, or the employer simply not being in contact.

14. Misleading promises or conditions: saying one thing about work, wages, accommodation or other benefits and creating the opposite situation in practice.

15. Discrimination: unfair or humiliating treatment on grounds of nationality, language, gender or anything else, or unfairly different treatment for the same work.

16. Excessive work: making you work beyond the hours set by the contract or by law, or forcing overtime in breach of the legal rules.

17. No protective equipment: not providing the personal protective equipment (PPE) the work requires, such as a helmet, gloves or hearing protection.

18. Unsuitable accommodation: housing you in conditions that are unhealthy, degrading, contrary to human dignity or unfit to live in.

19. Restricting your movement or contact: limiting your personal freedom, preventing you from going out, or keeping you from contact and meetings with family or others.

20. Other exploitation or violation of your personal rights: any other serious problem or exploitation concerning your work, wages, residence status, personal freedom, safety or human rights.