articles - Labour and employment law

Introduction Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the requirement to update employee qualifications required by the regulations has been temporarily suspended. Thus, the validity of the documents that prove their possession has also been extended. From the employer's perspective, we find three main elements here: (1) health & safety qualifications and entitlements, (2) motor vehicle driving documents and (3) other entitlements.  

A bill entitled the Act on Specific Solutions Facilitating Business Operations During the COVID-19 Epidemic has been filed with the Sejm. It would allow employers in Poland to demand information from employees about COVID-19 test results, having undergone a COVID-19 infection, or vaccination against COVID-19.

According to the proposal, an employer would be entitled to demand information from an employee or a person in a civil-law relationship (e.g. a contractor) to the effect that the person has obtained a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours before submission of the information.

The temporary regulations that were introduced in connection with the COVID-19 epidemic have temporarily amended certain labour law regulations. One of them concerns a suspension of Labour Code obligations regarding routine medical examinations. This has raised justified doubts among employers who are wondering whether the regulations have merely suspended the performance of the routine medical examination obligations, or if they should be interpreted as a temporary ban on performing them.

Since 1997, employers hiring disabled workers have been able to apply for support from PFRON. This applies both to sheltered workplaces and to the open labour market.

The Act dated 31 March 2020, namely the so-called Anti-Crisis Shield 1.0, introduced a series of new provisions to the Act dated 2 March 2020 on specific solutions associated with the prevention and countering of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, other contagious diseases and the crisis situations they cause (hereafter the Special Law). Its main purpose was to primarily enable employers to retain work positions during suspension of activity or reduction of revenues. It also includes important provisions on extension of the validity of judgments regarding disability, degree of disability and inability to...

Faced with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of companies are being forced to reduce their workforce. Many employers are required to pay redundant employees severance pay, a one-off benefit to compensate them for the loss of their jobs. This seemingly simple issue raises many practical problems. Additional doubts have emerged with regard to the interpretation of the Anti-Crisis Shield 4.0 provision temporarily limiting the maximum amount of benefits related to employment termination, including severance pay.