flash news
According to a report on the activities of the State Labour Inspectorate (text in Polish), 9,138 inspections were carried out in 2023, in which almost 40,000 foreigners were checked at to the legality of their employment.
On 12 June 2024, the Chief Labour Inspectorate presented a report on the State Labour Inspectorate’s activities in 2023 to the Speaker of the Sejm (lower house of Polish parliament).
It shows that in 2023, the number of complaints made to the State Labour Inspectorate fell by more than 14%, compared to the previous year. Most complaints were to do with the following irregularities:
- failure to pay remuneration for work
- shortfalls in the payment of remuneration
- late payment of remuneration.
The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy is working on an amendment to legislation on collective labour law. The draft law on collective labour agreements and collective accords (whose most important assumptions - with regard to collective labour agreements we have already addressed in a previous flash) also contains a proposal for a significant amendment to the Trade Union Act.
On the 12 July 2024, the AI Act was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. It is the first comprehensive regulation that provides norms for the use of artificial intelligence. The regulation divides AI systems into four categories of risk: unacceptable, high, limited and low.
The AI Act introduces a number of new obligations, including for entities that use high-risk AI systems (which may affect employers). These include:
- Before putting into service or using a high-risk AI system at the workplace, deployers who are employers shall inform workers’ representatives and the affected workers that they will be subject to the use of the high-risk AI system. This information shall be provided, where applicable, in accordance with the rules and procedures laid down in Union and national law and practice on information of workers and their representatives.
- In addition, entities that use high-risk AI systems must entrust human oversight to natural persons who have the necessary competence, training and authority, as well as the necessary support.
On 9 July 2024, a draft bill on amendments to the Labour Code (UD59), dated 4 July 2024, was posted on the website of the Government Legislation Centre.
The draft extends the assumptions (which we wrote about here) to include the following:
- periods of employment are to include:
- training at a doctoral school,
- receiving a sports scholarship,
- drawing unemployment benefit,
- running an individual farm or working on such a farm;
Trade unions have until Wednesday 10 July 2024 to submit information to employers on their size. The information is submitted as at 30 June 2024 and should include individuals:
- employed under contracts of employment,
- cooperating under civil law contracts.