Background information

In order to face a serious lack of personal protective equipment in the country, the government, on it meetings held on 11 and 15 March, decided to increase the stock of the COVID-19-related sanitary protective materials in Slovakia. In the light of the above, the private textile company Zornica, located in Bánovce nad Bebravou, decided to switch its production, becoming available to provide the government, and possibly other customers, with a wide supply of sanitary protective masks.

Content of measure

As there was a lack of personal protective sanitary masks, a private company Zornica Banco Fashion in Banovce nad Bebravou was the first company which came with the initiative to stop the production of fashion textile, mainly shirts, for the open market and replace it by the production of personal sanitary protective masks for the use in Slovakia, preferably for the government. According to the available information, by changing the production, the company also responded to the expected decline of demands of its usual customers. The competent government body, consequently, concluded a temporary contract with the company for urgent production of sanitary masks.

Use of measure

About 140 workers are engaged in the fulfilment of the contract. The company responded quickly and delivered the fist 20,000 personal masks on 17 March 2020. According to the agreement mentioned above, the company will deliver about 650,000 sanitary masks in total. The most of them will be delivered to the Administration of State Material Reserves of the Slovak Republic (Správa statnych hmotnych rezerv Slovenskej republiky).

Presently, the company supplies personal masks to many other customers. For instance, to the Ministry of Interior, Association of Commerce, General Health Insurance Agency and several large companies. According to the company, it produced about 2.1 million personal masks by the end of September 2020.

Contents

• Other topics

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment Particular professions	Does not apply to businesses	The COVID-19 risk group People in care facilities

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Company / Companies	Employer National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Informed
Form	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Company level

Involvement

Production of personal protective sanitary masks and changes in the production programme of the company were consulted with the local trade union organisation of the Integrated Trade Union Association (IOZ).

Views and reactions

The production of personal protective sanitary masks and following changes in the production programme of the company saved employment in the company and were supported by local trade unions.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 10 March 2020: Rúška bude vyrábať aj slovenská firma z Bánoviec nad Bebravou, denne ich dodá tisíce. (www.startitup.sk)
• 11 March 2020: Návrh na zmenu materiálovej skladby pohotovostných zásob (rokovania.gov.sk)
• 01 October 2020: Zornica information