The Labour Code stipulates time limits after which an employer’s claims expire for remedy of damage inflicted by an employee due to failure to perform or improper performance of employee duties. Under Art. 291 § 2 of the Labour Code, claims of this kind expire one year from the day on which the employer became aware of the damage done by an employee, but no more than three years from the time the damage was inflicted. It is not entirely clear when these periods should be considered to start.

Under the Labour Code (Art. 100 § 2(6)), an employee has a duty to abide by the principles of community life, but what does this entail?

Art. 42 §4 of the Polish Labour Code grants the employer broad authority to modify employees’ working conditions. It permits the employer to assign work to the employee different from that originally agreed. But this possibility is subject to many limitations. The employer thus may assign different work to the employee only when:

• A legitimate need arises on the part of the employer
• The period of assignment of different work does not exceed three months within a calendar year
• Assignment of different work will not reduce the employee’s pay, and
• The assigned work is suited to the employee’s qualifications.

In the course of applying Art. 42 §4, doubts have arisen whether it is possible on this basis to change the place of performance of the work which the employee and the employer agreed to in the employment contract.