Labour and employment law in Poland

Introduction

Poland is well known for its low personnel costs. Due to this fact, it is currently Europe’s main outsourcing hub, with companies such as Amazon, General Motors, Dell and various major banks moving their plants and shared service centres to Poland. Easy access to qualified employees results from a state-paid university system, which produces many highly specialised and innovative workers, especially in the field of IT and engineering.

Key Points

Risks to prepare for:

• an ever-evolving tax and social security system.
• high presence and activity of trade unions in case of major employers (mostly in industrial-related sectors).
• labour courts sensitive to employee rights.
• strict EU data protection regulations (i.e. hindering transfer of personal data outside of the EU).

Legal framework

Employees’ and employers’ rights and obligations are established in the following sources of labour law:

• the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which defines general principles of freedom to work and social rights;
• the law established by appropriate organs of the European Union in the scope of labour law;
• International agreements concerning labour law issues;
• the Labour Code,
• acts and secondary legislation, defining the employees’ and employers’ rights and obligations;
• provisions of collective labour agreements and other agreements, rules and procedures, and statutes setting forth the rights and obligations of the parties to the employment relationship (these are generally only company-level or group-level collective labour agreements in cases where trade unions are active – sector-level collective labour agreements are not used in practice); and
• the mutual rights and obligations of the parties to labour relations are also defined by the employment contract.

New Developments

From 1 May 2026 (in the private sector), periods of self-employment, contracts of mandate and agency contracts, work abroad and other forms of professional activity outside an employment relationship will be counted towards length of service – which affects, the amount of annual leave. Importantly, the provisions apply retrospectively – it will be possible to include periods of activity from the past. The condition is that these periods must be properly documented.

From 24 December 2025, Christmas Eve has become a public holiday (non-working day)

On 24 December 2025, a law partially implementing the Pay Transparency Directive came into force. Employers are obliged to use gender-neutral job titles and to provide job candidates with information regarding the remuneration for the position: its initial amount or range, or the relevant pay regulations applicable at the employer.  By 7 June 2026 the provisions of the Pay Transparency Directive are supposed to be fully implemented.

On 13 December 2025, the Act on Collective Labour Agreements and Collective Agreements came into force. The new law transferred the provisions on collective agreements from the Labour Code to the new Act. It expanded the subject matter of collective agreements and introduces the National Register of Collective Labour Agreements (KEUZP), in which all collective agreements and arrangements are recorded.

On 19 March 2025, legislation came into force introducing additional leave for parents of premature babies and babies hospitalised after birth. The Act introduces additional maternity leave of up to 8 weeks or up to 15 weeks – depending on the length of hospitalisation and the week of pregnancy in which the child is born, or the birth weight.