President signs latest changes to labour law and rules on sick leave
On 7 January, the president signed two amendments that are significant for employers and employees. The Act of 4 December 2025 eases certain formal requirements in the Labour Code, whilst the changes of 18 December 2025 concern the Social Insurance Institution's (ZUS) adjudication system and the rules on sick leave.
Under the amendments to the Labour Code and the Company Social Benefits Fund Act:
- a number of documents that previously had to be in writing can now be on paper or in electronic format (which includes notifications to employees regarding workplace transfers and employee requests for individual working time schedules),
- compensation for untaken annual leave will be payable on the regular date for payment of a salary, unless that date is before the termination of employment and if it is, the compensation is to be paid within 10 days of the ending of employment,
- it has been clarified that when there are no trade unions, an employer and employee representatives (plural) - rather than a single representative - must agree on matters relating to a Company Social Benefits Fund.
These changes will take effect 14 days after official publication of the act.
The key changes to rules on sick leave include:
- loss of entitlement to sickness benefits will result from paid work (excluding incidental activities required by significant circumstances) or undertaking activities inconsistent with the purpose of the leave (except for ordinary daily activities or incidental activities necessitated by significant circumstances during the period of leave),
- at an insured person's request a doctor can issue a certificate for only selected jobs if undertaking other activities during the period of leave is possible (for example, a person employed in two places can request leave from work in only one of them, as the sickness does not prevent that person from working in the other place of employment),
- the person inspecting proper use of medical leave will have the authority to request identification from the person being inspected (to verify an identity),
- new standard forms will be issued for authorisation to inspect work and for inspection protocols to ascertain proper use of leave,
- inspection procedures have been clarified and incorporated into an act (previously a regulation applied).
Most of these changes will take effect 3 months after publication of the act.