Workers in the Slovenian private sector, due to the new decision of the Constitutional Court, will ultimately not have to return the winter bonus for 2025.

Slovenian employers had to pay the 'Christmas bonus' even for the months before the law came into force. The Court declared this unconstitutional. Despite this, as Dnevnik.si writes, the right to the Christmas bonus remains in the future as well.

A new obligation for a period that has already passed

The law on the winter bonus, a mandatory payment often called the Christmas bonus, was adopted in November 2025. In the calculation, however, the period of employment before it entered into force was also taken into account. Employers thus received a new cost for previous months, for which they could not prepare in advance.

For example, a worker who worked at a company from January to June 2025 was entitled to a proportional part of the Christmas bonus, even though they left before the law was adopted. The calculation for earlier months also applied to those who continued working. The Court concluded that the necessary public interest for such retroactive application of the law had not been demonstrated.

Why do workers keep the money?

The Court protected the legitimate expectations of employees that they could keep the money they received on the basis of a right recognized by law. Therefore, it established unconstitutionality, but did not repeal the provisions that enabled the payment. The mandatory Christmas bonus itself was not declared unconstitutional by this decision.

Employers sought more

The proceedings were initiated by a group of companies led by Boxmark Leather. Its director and president of the Slovenian employers' association, Marjan Trobiš, believes that the obligation itself was also problematic. He claims they did not want to take anything away from workers, but to prevent arbitrary decision-making by the authorities and the gathering of political points at the expense of companies.

The decision was adopted with 8 votes in favor and 1 against. Judge Rok Svetlič voted against, believing that the Court should have established the unconstitutionality of the very introduction of the mandatory Christmas bonus. The majority of judges did not accept that position, so the employers succeeded only in part of their objections.

The decision was also welcomed by the Gibanje Svoboda party, which participated in the adoption of the law, emphasizing the financial security of employees. For workers, the practical outcome is clear: last year's money remains at their disposal, and the legal obligation of future payments applies to the public and private sectors. The established unconstitutionality of part of last year's calculation did not relieve employers of that obligation.