Employment Law Overview 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

In February 2023, new provisions on remote working came into force in Poland. The rules of remote work should be established in group agreements or regulations, or in an individual manner. The employees are entitled to equivalent, or lump-sum pay for remote work.

As of February 2023, it is also possible to perform sobriety checks in the workplace.

In April 2023, two EU directives were implemented to the Polish Labour Code – the directive on work-life balance for parents and carers and the directive on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union. The amendments, among many other changes, introduced some new rights for employed parents.

As of September 2023, the rules for paying court fees in employment cases have changed – an employee does not pay a fee on a filed lawsuit regardless of the value of the object of the dispute and pays a fee on an appeal in cases where the value of the object of the dispute exceeds PLN 50,000. Changes have also been made to the obligation to employ employees during the pending litigation.

As of May 2024, work health and safety rules at workstations equipped with screen monitors have changed – employers are required, among other things, to provide employees using laptops with a desktop monitor or stand, an additional keyboard and mouse.

In September 2024, the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers will come into force, which will introduce numerous obligations for entities for which at least 50 people perform gainful employment, including that they will be required to establish an internal reporting procedure, follow up and maintain an internal reporting record.