Considering its history, the Department was set up simultaneously with the establishment of the Faculty of Law of UPJŠ in Košice in 1973 originally under the name of Department of Labour Law and Law of Agricultural Cooperatives. The Department had their offices on Zbrojnícka street no. 5 (currently Zbrojničná street). The first Head of Department was prof. JUDr. Milan Štefanovič, DrSc. In 1988 the Department moved to the building of the Faculty of Law on Kováčska street no. 30 and the Department has remained in these premises to the present day.
The designation of the Department has changed on several occasions; in 1990 it was renamed as the Department of Labour Law, Cooperative Law and Ecological Law, shortly after that in 1992 as the Department of Labour Law, Social Security Law and Environmental Law. Its current official name – the Department of Labour Law and Social Security Law has been in use since 2001. The academic staff of the Department in different periods of time included: Assoc. Prof. JUDr. Milena Barinková, CSc., JUDr. Ľuboš Dobrovič, PhD., JUDr. Eva Janičová, CSc., Assoc. Prof. JUDr. Zdenko Kordík, CSc., JUDr. Ján Martinec, Assoc. Prof. JUDr. Ján Pirč, CSc., prof. JUDr. Milan Štefanovič, DrSc., prof. JUDr. Vojtech Tkáč, CSc., JUDr. Ján Trojan, CSc. and JUDr. Tibor Železník.
