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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.
On 24 April 2024, the European Parliament adopted new legislation to improve the working conditions of online platform workers. It is set out in the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on improving working conditions on online platforms. As many as 554 MEPs voted in favour of the Directive (56 voted against and 24 abstained).
Purpose of the Directive
The Directive aims to improve the working conditions of online platform workers and provide them with protection by ensuring that their employment status is properly established through introducing a presumption of employment and establishing minimum rights applicable to anyone working through online platforms in the EU.
Ukrainian nationals have long been the most numerous group of foreigners working in Poland. Their share of the Polish labour market has risen further due to the war in Ukraine. As a result of the hostilities, some Ukrainians decided to leave the country to seek refuge in other states, including, to a significant extent, in Poland. A report of the Central Statistical Office dated 5 August 2024 shows that 690,200 Ukrainian citizens were working in Poland at the end of February 2024.
In the Polish legal system, giving work to a foreigner who has not been authorised to undertake it, entails a liability for the employer. At present, Article 120 par. 1 of the Act on the Promotion of Employment and on Labour Market Institutions envisages a fine for illegally employing a foreigner. The fine may range from PLN 1,000 to PLN 30,000.
Amendments are now being planned to limit the extent of an employers’ liability, by changing the requirements for liability under this petty offence. The proposed amendments have been accepted by the Council of Ministers and are currently at the consultation stage.
What can a whistleblower report?
On 24 June 2024, the Whistleblowers Protection Act was published in the Journal of Laws. After a delay of several years, Poland - as the last European Union country - implemented the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) on the protection of whistleblowers into its legal order. Thus, the period of vacatio legis, which is three months for most provisions, commenced. They will enter into force at the end of September 2024.
The Act allows whistleblowers to make reports or public disclosures if they identify violations of the branches of law set out in the Act. It is therefore worth answering the seemingly trivial question of what matters a report can address.
On 1 July 2024, another amendment to the Act of 12 March 2022 on assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with the armed conflict in that country will come into force. It introduces a number of important changes concerning the legality of residence and employment of Ukrainian citizens in Poland.
Changes regarding stay
The most important change in the amendment is an extension until 30 September 2025 of:
- the period of legal residence in Poland of Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection (who arrived legally in Poland starting from 24 February 2022 and declared their intention to stay in Poland),