PIP will gain more powers in the fight against mobbing?

Work is underway on a draft amendment to the provisions on mobbing. During discussions at the Social Dialogue Council, the Chief Labour Inspector proposed that an employer's failure to draw up an anti-mobbing procedure should be sanctioned as an offence. This would strengthen the inspectors’ positions in their fight against this unwanted behaviour.

Deregulation of commercial law and workers' rights – labour ministry position

The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy opposes proposals to restrict PIP and Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) inspections as envisaged in the draft amendments to multiple laws drawn up by the Ministry of Development and Technology. According to the labour ministry, the changes could make it more difficult to detect illegal employment and violations of workers' rights. The dispute over 'deregulation' of the legislation is in progress - the government is looking for a compromise before the changes are scheduled to come into force on 1 May 2025.

New version of the draft regulation on maximum temperatures in the workplace

The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has presented a new version of the draft regulation on maximum temperatures. The controversial index of employees’ metabolic rate, on which the value of the maximum temperature was originally to depend, has been removed and replaced by a simpler criterion of the energy expenditure needed to perform given work. The proposal to introduce maximum temperatures for working indoors (35°C) and outdoors (32°C) has been retained in the draft. Work at higher temperatures will only be entrusted if suitable temperatures “cannot be maintained for technical reasons”.

Employers obliged to employ foreign citizens under an employment contract after all

The bill on permissibility of entrusting work to foreign citizens in Poland, which is currently being deliberated by an extraordinary committee of parliament’s lower house, still restricts the possibility of employing foreign citizens on any basis other than an employment contract. Earlier, the government declared that this provision would be removed from the bill.

Collective agreements will regulate remote working

The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy is working on a bill on collective bargaining and collective agreements. In addition to the changes we have already written about on our portal, the draft provides amendments to the Labour Code provisions on remote working. According to the bill, rules for remote work are to be included by default in a company collective agreement or in an additional protocol to an already concluded agreement. After 30 days of unsuccessful negotiations on the matter, the employer will set out the principles of remote working in bylaws. In turn, where there are no active trade union organisations, the employer will determine the principles for remote working in bylaws, but after consultation with employee representatives.

Supreme Court: Employee illness does not constitute force majeure

In its latest decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that an employee's illness cannot be considered to be force majeure and, therefore, does not interrupt the running of the limitation period for their claims. The court upheld the previous line of jurisprudence, according to which manifestations of force majeure are events external to the person concerned, extraordinary, inevitable and impossible to foresee, of such an impact that there is no defence against their effects. The court cited being abroad and being in custody as other examples, which generally do not constitute force majeure.