Joanna Dudek
Joanna Dudek, attorney-at-law, practises employment law. She represents clients in litigation and mediation, conducts negotiations and drafts settlements. She advises in internal anti-mobbing proceedings and transfers of workplaces. She supports employers in creating workplace rules and policies. She conducts employment audits and participates in due diligence. She provides ongoing advice on HR law, in particular establishing and terminating employment as well as contracts with management. She has experience advising on data protection.
The under-representation of women in the highest decision-making bodies of companies in the EU was the trigger for the Women on Boards Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2381 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 November 2022 on improving gender balance among directors of listed companies and related measures).
The Directive intends to ensure that women and men enjoy equal opportunities as well as a more balanced representation in top management. In view of their economic and social responsibilities and their significant impact on the market, the largest listed companies are now required to introduce measures that ensure a balance between genders.
A bill is currently being drafted in Poland to implement the Women on Boards Directive, which will affect recruitment and hiring policies and HR processes.
Helping employees to raise their professional qualifications is a basic duty of employers and is also one of the cornerstones of labour law. Employee training is an integral part of today’s labour market, in which technological developments and the associated changes in how work is organised are, essentially, forcing upskilling and retraining. This topic is also particularly relevant to the policies that employers draw up, which increasingly offer subsidised training to employees as a benefit encouraging them accept offers of jobs or to remain in employment.
Since 26 April 2023 the Labour Code has allowed leave from work due to force majeure. The introduction of this institution was mandated by the so-called Work Life Balance Directive (Directive 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU).
In the current Polish labour market, disclosure of salaries by employers is standard only in certain industries, particularly in the IT sector. Many employers do not disclose salary information to protect company secrets. Hence, it appears, that the norm is not to disclose salary ranges in recruitment advertisements, use of salary secrecy provisions and for employers to increasingly rarely set pay grades, which translates into less disclosure of salaries in organisations.
Infertility treatment using the in vitro method entails costs which, due to non-reimbursement by the National Health Fund, for many people constitutes an enormous expense, often impossible to cover with own funds. Although there are local government support programmes in some Polish cities, subsidies that can be obtained from them do not cover all costs and apply only to selected groups of people.
Between the hammer and anvil: a forgotten institution in an employer's crisis situation
The current socio-economic situation presents employers a huge challenge. On one hand, they confront inflationary increases that are necessary to retain employees. On the other hand, they struggle with rising prices and business costs.