On April 7, the Sme daily wrote about the revised Labour Code that came into effect as of the second quarter of 2007 and that has failed to deliver on one of its stated goals: to reduce the number of employees that have been forced to obtain a trading license and work officially as a self-employed person.
Data from the Statistics Office and the ministry division for the self-employed haven't indicated any radical change in the number of self-employed people since the measure came into effect. Ľubomiír Čierny, spokesman for the Trade Union Confederation, which pushed for the revision, has admitted that the new Code doesn't appear to have produced the expected results.
According to opposition SDKÚ-DS MP Lucia Žitňanská, these kind of measures will make no sense as long as working on the basis of a trading license is favourable not only for employers but also for employees, as they pay lower social contributions. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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