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The principle of non-discrimination has been in force in Polish labour law for over 20 years. At the same time, there is a noticeable tendency to specify and expand provisions in this area. Soon, on 24 December 2025, the principle of non-discrimination will be reinforced once again – by adding art. 183ca to the Labour Code. The adoption of art. 183ca LC relates to partial implementation of European Parliament and Council (EU) Directive 2023/970[1].
This provision introduces rules on transparency regarding remuneration at the recruitment stage. However, it also stipulates that: The employer shall ensure that job advertisements and job titles are gender-neutral and that the recruitment process is non-discriminatory. We focus in this article on new duties of employers in this regard.
[1] Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected work organisation, particularly in the services sector, but also in white-collar and administrative/office work. To reduce the risk of infection, where possible, many employees switched to remote working, and business meetings became virtual. This model quickly gained popularity and was gradually implemented more widely, even after the peak of the pandemic had passed.
After numerous comments were made during the opinion process on a draft act about which we wrote in the article Draft new definition of mobbing = new obligations for employers, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy on 5 June 2025 published a new version of the draft on the Governmental Legislation Centre website.
Compared to the previous version, the bill contains several changes to regulations aimed at systematising the definition of mobbing, as well as introducing legal solutions that are new to Polish labour law, such as the employer's right to claims against the perpetrator of mobbing.
In recent years, employers have increasingly made diversity & inclusion (D&I) a part of their HR strategy. Recent changes in the social and political climate might suggest that D&I is losing relevance. Nonetheless, it is important to remember that employment legislation itself plays a significant role in building an inclusive and diverse work environment. Indeed, D&I is not just the domain of soft HR actions: its pillars are embedded in the provisions of the Labour Code.
Rights of trade unions
Under the Act on Trade Unions, the rights of a trade union depend on the level of its membership.
The required levels of membership are:
- at least 10 members for a workplace trade union,
- a total of at least 10 members across all the employers spanned by an inter-workplace trade union (it is sufficient for a given employer to have one employee as a member of an inter-workplace trade union for that union to enjoy trade union rights).
In 2024, Polish courts received a significant number of labour law cases. Statistics published by the Ministry of Justice show that over 100,000 cases were brought to labour courts in 2024.