HRlaw.pl - Labour and employment law

Mediation is one of the ways of amicably resolving disputes, including labour law disputes. In practice, mediation is generally carried out in all types of labour disputes, in particular in cases concerning employment contract termination, payment of bonuses or other employment dues, bullying or sexual harassment.

The legal nature of the relationship between a company and its management board (MB) member often has a number of aspects. Primary is the corporate aspect of the appointment to the MB (usually under a resolution of a meeting of shareholders or supervisory board). The second involves a board member’s rights and obligations while working for the company. In the latter, MB members with employment contracts have a specific situation, with the most complicated aspect arising when terminating their employment.

The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has drawn up a bill modifying the existing definition of mobbing which has been in effect for more than 20 years. The bill amending the provisions of the Labour Code (UD183) was published on the Government Legislation Centre’s website on 20 January 2025. It  alters concepts and provisions related to undesirable behaviour in the workplace, such as discrimination, unequal treatment and mobbing. How will the change in the definition of mobbing affect employers and employees?

Nagrywanie rozmów, które pracownicy call center prowadzą z klientami, prowadzi do przetwarzania danych osobowych pracowników przez pracodawcę jako administratora danych osobowych. W zależności od zastosowanych rozwiązań technicznych dane te będą obejmować samą treść słów wypowiadanych przez pracownika (i jego rozmówcę) lub, dodatkowo, metadane związane z nagrywaną rozmową (np. czas trwania czy godzina rozpoczęcia i zakończenia).

Chatbots and voicebots are being increasingly used for interactions between employers and employees. They help employers meet their obligations to employees, such as serving as a tool to provide information about procedures at the employer or how to carry out certain tasks. They also help in managing employment, as a communications tool for basic HR issues.

Employers, especially those that are part of foreign groups, sometimes wish to carry out background checks, to analyse information concerning the circumstances or status of job candidates or employees beyond the extent of their legal right to do so.

The aim of Directive 2023/970 (i.e. Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 on enhancing the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women for equal work or work of equal value through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms) is to reduce and, in the long term, eliminate the gender pay gap in the EU, which was still 12.7% in 2022.

The under-representation of women in the highest decision-making bodies of companies in the EU was the trigger for the Women on Boards Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2381 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 November 2022 on improving gender balance among directors of listed companies and related measures).

The Directive intends to ensure that women and men enjoy equal opportunities as well as a more balanced representation in top management. In view of their economic and social responsibilities and their significant impact on the market, the largest listed companies are now required to introduce measures that ensure a balance between genders.

A bill is currently being drafted in Poland to implement the Women on Boards Directive, which will affect recruitment and hiring policies and HR processes.

On October 15, main ideas appeared on the list of legislative and programmatic work of the Council of Ministers in a document entitled “Take back control. Ensure Security. Poland's Comprehensive and Responsible Migration Strategy for 2025-2030.” Just two days later. on October 17, the full text of the strategy was published. The strategy is intended to set directions for changes in immigration law in terms of, among other things:  

The law protects employees who are absent due to illness from dismissal, if they return to work before the end of the period set down in law. Only a sufficiently long and, in principle, uninterrupted absence due to sickness allows the employer to terminate the contract immediately with an employee who is unfit to work. As a result, situations arise, in practice, in which employees take sick leave “on and off”, interrupting long periods of absence by returning for a few days to work. On the one hand, this is supposed to guarantee further protection against dismissal while, on the other, to ensure that the benefit for being unable to work is received for as long as possible. Nevertheless, it turns out that this strategy will not always prevent the employer from letting the employee go.

When an employee has been absent for a long period of time, or in other circumstances where an employer is having difficulties contacting an employee via official means of communication, HR departments often wonder whether they can use an employee's private contact data. Some more cautious employers introduce employee questionnaires requesting a private e-mail address or telephone number, or collect this data from employees in a different way. How does the issue of obtaining private contact data look from a data protection law perspective?

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),

Care leave, introduced into the Labour Code on 26 April 2023 is an employee entitlement that appeared relatively recently in the Polish legal order (we wrote about its granting in the article Care Leave). As a result, there is still no established case law or practice on the application of provisions defining rules for its granting. Nevertheless, every employer should consider appropriate solutions if receiving a request from an employee for care leave.

Exit interviews, namely interviews which employers hold with employees whose employment  is ending, are widely used by HR departments and may provide useful information regarding managing the workplace. In today’s piece, we will take a look at exit interviews from the perspective of data protection legislation.

On 23 May 2024, Parliament adopted the long-awaited draft law on the protection of whistleblowers (which is supposed to implement the European Parliament (EU) Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of the rights of whistleblowers of 23 October 2019). After more than two years after the deadline for implementing the EU legislation, it seems likely that employers (and whistleblowers) will finally live to see legislation that has caused them so much concern.

Admittedly, the bill still must be passed by the Senate and then signed by the President before it can enter into force. However, many significant changes to its content are unlikely.

The draft law provides for a broad package of criminal sanctions and claims for persons to whom its provisions have been incorrectly applied. In view of the imminent entry into force of the whistleblower provisions, it is certainly worthwhile to become familiar with the potential consequences of violating them.

By 17 May 2024, employers must adapt workstations that existed before 17 November 2023 to the new OHS and ergonomics requirements resulting from the amended provisions of the Regulation of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy of 1 December 1998 on Occupational Health & Safety at Workplaces Equipped with Display Screen Monitors.

The creation of a new workstation as of 17 November 2023 means that the employer must apply the amended legislation from the outset.

The draft bill on the protection of whistleblowers, published on 17 April 2024, intended to implement Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of whistleblowers, provides detailed guidelines on requirements that obliged employers must meet in establishing internal reporting procedures.

On 17 April 2024, another bill on the protection of whistleblowers was submitted to the Lower House of Parliament (Sejm). The law is intended to implement the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) 2019/1937 of 23 October 2019 on the protection of whistleblowers into the Polish legal order. After more than two years of work, at this session the government adopted what seems to be the final version of the draft.

A few days ago, a bill to amend the Foreigners Act appeared on the legislative agenda of the Polish Council of Ministers. Work on the bill is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2024. It provides for changes in several important areas, including:

• Implementation into Polish law of Directive (EU) 2021/1883 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2021 on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of highly qualified employment (EU Blue Card)
• Electronic filing of applications for temporary residence permits, permanent residence permits and long-term EU resident permits, instead of filing these applications in paper form in person at the province office.