flash news - Labour and employment law

Two days from the office and three days from home - this is the most popular remote working model across Europe, according to a recent CBRE study. The report from the study published in July (European Office Occupier Sentiment Survey 2024) indicated that 70% of employees work from the office for two or three days and only 7% work from home four days a week.

No work permit required for remote work in Poland

Foreigners do not need to hold a work permit if they intend to work remotely in Poland for employers, who do not have legal presence in Poland, – was the individual response of the Department of the Labour Market of the Polish Ministry of Family and Social Policy, to our question of 14 March 2023.

On 6 February 2023, the Act of 1 December 2022 on amendments to the Labour Code and certain other legislation  (Journal of Laws 2023, item 240) was published  in the Journal of Laws.

It is, therefore, necessary to highlight two important dates:

• the provisions on sobriety checks will enter into force 14 days after the date of the publication, i.e. on 21 February this year;
• the provisions on working remotely will enter into force 2 months after the date of publication, i.e. on 7 April this year.

Yesterday, the Office of the President announced that on 27 January 2023, the President signed an Act amending the Labour Code and Certain Other Acts (Parliamentary publication no. 2335), permanently introducing sobriety control and remote working into the Labour Code.

The Act will enter into force 14 days after the date of its promulgation – with the exception of provisions on remote working and those on telework that have been repealed, which will start to bind two months after the promulgation.

On 13 January, the Sejm adopted an amendment to the Labour Code and certain other legislation (regarding remote work and testing for sobriety), rejecting all of the amendments proposed by the Senate.

On 15 December, the Senate adopted an amendment to the Labour Code and certain other acts (on remote working and sobriety control) with the following amendments:

• occasional remote working will be allowed for 30 days per calendar year (rather than 24 days),
• a parent of a child up to the age of 10 (rather than up to the age of 4) will be able to request remote working and the employer will, in principle, have to grant such a request,
• employees with disabilities will also be able to request remote working and the employer will, in principle, have to grant such a request,
• there will be a longer vacatio legis for certain provisions of the Act, including provisions introducing remote working as envisaged by the Code – 3 months (rather than 2 months) after its public announcement.

The draft amendment will now go back to the Sejm (lower house of Parliament), which can either support or reject the Senate's amendments.