articles - Labour and employment law

On 20 January 2025, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy published a draft act amending the Labour Code on the website of the Governmental Legislation Centre. The amendments are intended to clarify the definition of mobbing, which has existed in the Polish legal system for over 20 years, and to impose new obligations on employers.

The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has drawn up a bill modifying the existing definition of mobbing which has been in effect for more than 20 years. The bill amending the provisions of the Labour Code (UD183) was published on the Government Legislation Centre’s website on 20 January 2025. It  alters concepts and provisions related to undesirable behaviour in the workplace, such as discrimination, unequal treatment and mobbing. How will the change in the definition of mobbing affect employers and employees?

Mobbing is a particularly harmful and dangerous phenomenon. It adversely affects employees as well as the employer. Mobbing also negatively affects the work atmosphere and thereby assessment of the employer by present and future staff.

The Labour Code defines mobbing in art. 943 § 1 as action or behaviour pertaining to or directed at an employee in the form of persistent and lengthy harassment or intimidation causing underestimation of professional usefulness or resulting in or intended to humiliate or mock an employee or to isolate or eliminate him or her from a team of co-workers.

Whistleblowers are individuals who voluntarily and in good faith report or disclose information about abuse, contributing to the prevention of harm and the detection of public-interest risks and threats that would otherwise remain undetected. Although national institutions and bodies, as well as social organisations, have repeatedly raised the need for regulations to protect such persons, Poland has not yet developed a comprehensive regulation to protect whistleblowers. This is expected to change in the near future, as on 7 October 2019 the Council of the European Union adopted the...

A major change to the Labour Code entered into force on 7 September 2019, making it easier for employees to pursue claims for mobbing. Under Art. 943 of the Polish Labour Code, an employee may seek compensation (zadośćuczynienie) for a detriment to the employee’s health caused by mobbing, as well as damages (odszkodowanie) in an amount no less than the minimum wage. But previously, as a condition for seeking damages, the employee had to terminate the employment on the grounds of mobbing.