Draft laws comprising the so-called anti-crisis shield have already been provided for public consultation. They are to be adopted by the government on Tuesday 24 March, and by the Sejm on Friday 27 March.

The anti-crisis shield comprises the following package of laws:

• draft law of 21 March 2020 amending the law on special solutions for preventing, counteracting and combating COVID-19, other contagious diseases and the crisis situations caused by these, and certain other laws;
• draft law of 21 March 2020 on granting public aid for rescuing or restructuring businesses;
• draft law of 21 March 2020 amending the Act on the system of development institutions.

The proposed amendments will also take account of specific provisions proposed by the Ministry of Justice and the Competition and Consumer Protection Office, which are currently under consultation.

The package has been divided into four areas:

• improving the financial liquidity of businesses,
• deferring fulfilment of certain obligations,
• securing employee jobs and income,
• solutions enabling and improving the implementation of tasks.

Securing employee jobs and income

The package on securing employee jobs and income proposes, among others:

Remuneration subsidies to be paid to employers from the Guarantee Employee Benefits Fund (FGŚP) to protect employee jobs, including payment of social security contributions and subsidies for employee remuneration subject to economic standstill or reduced working time.

In the case of a decrease in economic turnover as a result of COVID-19, the employer pays remuneration to an employee affected by economic standstill (understood as a period when the employee does not perform work for reasons that are not related to the employee being on standby) reduced by not more than 50%. However, this cannot be lower than the statutory minimum wage, having regard for extent of working time. Such standstill remuneration is subsidised from FGŚP up to 50% of the statutory minimum wage.

In turn, in the case of a decrease in economic turnover as a result of COVID-19, the employer may limit the employee’s working time by 20%, not more than to 0.5 FTE, provided that the remuneration cannot be lower than the statutory minimum wage. In such case, up to half employees’ salaries are subsidised from FGŚP, but not more than up to 40% of the average monthly remuneration from the previous quarter announced by the President of GUS.

A decrease in economic turnover is understood as a decrease in the sale of goods or services, in terms of quantity or value:

• not less than by 15% (the ratio of the total turnover in any two consecutive months after 1 January 2020 to the total turnover in the corresponding two months from the previous year), or

• not less than by 25% of turnover in any month after 1 January 2020 compared to the previous month.

In order to receive these benefits, the employer cannot be in arrears with advance payments against income tax, social security contributions, health insurance, the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund, Labour Fund or Solidarity Fund for the period until the end of the third quarter of 2019.

Article 42 § 1-3 Labour Code, i.e. the provisions on altered notice, does not apply when determining the conditions and method of performing work during the economic standstill or reduced working time. Moreover, the Special Act gives trade unions only two days to negotiate new conditions and work methods during the standstill. If it is not possible to agree these with all the workplace organisations, the employer takes account only of those which combine at least 5% of employees. However, if the new conditions are not agreed upon within two days, the employer has the right to determine these unilaterally.

Additional financing by the County Administrator (Starosta), in the event of a decline in economic turnover following the occurrence of COVID-19 in any two consecutive months after 1 January 2020.:

• part of the costs of employee remuneration and due social security contributions for micro, small and medium-sized businesses with employees (not longer than for six months for micro and small businesses, three months for medium-sized enterprises), depending on the decrease in turnover:
  • by at least 30% – product of the number of employees and 50% of the minimum wage,
  • by at least 50% – product of the number of employees and 70% of the minimum wage,
  • by at least 80% – product of the number of employees and 90% of the minimum wage,
• part of the costs of running the business in the case of an entrepreneur who is a natural person and sole trader (not longer than six months), depending on the decrease in turnover:
  • by at least 30% – 50% of the minimum wage,
  • by at least 50% – 70% of the minimum wage,
  • by at least 80- 90% of the minimum wage.

Economic standstill allowance – not liable to social security contributions and not taxed:

• for contractors and the self-employed at 80% of the minimum wage, if income has fallen by at least 15% compared to the previous month, provided that the income in the previous month was below 300% of the average wage,
• for persons with a taxation card/registered lump sum taxation, exempt from VAT at 50% of the minimum wage.

Additional care allowance

The range of people entitled to additional care allowance will be extended. This will be accorded to:

• insured persons released from work due to the need to take care of a person who has been ruled significantly disabled until the age of 18 or has a disability certificate if a centre has been closed,
• the care of an ill adult with a disability, in the event of suspension of day care facilities.

A care allowance will also be granted if a nanny or day carer is unable to provide care.

A flexible mechanism will be introduced to extend the period of drawing care allowance (this is a Council of Ministers prerogative, on the basis of an issued regulation).

Other changes:

• increasing the amount of monthly subsidy for the remuneration of disabled employees from the State Fund for Rehabilitation of the Disabled (base amount: from PLN 1,800 to PLN 1,950 in the case of severely disabled persons, from PLN 1,125 to PLN 1,200 in the case of the moderately disabled, addition to the base amount: from PLN 600 to PLN 1,200 and PLN 900 respectively),
• expanding the group of people who can work remotely by including officers of services such as the Police, Border Guards, Internal Security Agency, etc.,
• enabling employers to set more flexible rules for setting working time for their employees and to modify the terms and conditions of employment in order to preserve jobs (limitation of uninterrupted daily and weekly rest, introduction of a system of equivalent working time without having to meet the requirements of the Labour Code),
• enabling employers in charge of critical infrastructure and petrol stations to carry out specific labour law measures to enable the uninterrupted operation of these enterprises (change of system or working time schedule, instructing work in overtime hours) in the event of an epidemiological emergency or epidemic.

Remaining packages

Other proposed packages include, among others:

• exemption from social security contributions for three months for the self-employed, contractors and micro-entrepreneurs with up to nine employees if their income has decreased by 50%.
• postponing the date of payment of income tax advances on wages paid in March and April 2020 (until 1 June 2020).
• temporary abolition of the prolongation fee regarding treasury and social security receivables.
• possibility of one-off loan from Labour Fund to cover the costs of running a micro-enterprise’s business, of PLN 5,000 for a period not longer than 12 months with a six-month grace period, with the possibility of cancellation in the case of no decrease of the employment level,
• postponing the date of concluding the contract for running Employee Capital Plans by companies employing over 50 people to October 2020,
• extending the deadline for submitting applications for residence permits, visa extensions and extensions of stay under visa-free travel if this should occur during an epidemiological emergency or epidemic, extension by law of periods of validity of temporary residence permits and national visas (by up to 30 days from the date of lifting emergency status).

It is also proposed to extend the validity of decisions:

• about partial incapacity for work, total incapacity for work, total incapacity for work and inability to exist independently, inability to exist independently, circumstances justifying the establishment of entitlements to rehabilitation benefit, as issued by medical examiners and medical commissions of the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) for a fixed period, constituting the basis for granting the benefit,
• disability or disability status, parking cards,
• medical decisions on absence of medical contraindications, also for officers of individual services and bodies, up to 60 days from the date of cancellation of an epidemiological emergency or state of epidemic.

Mateusz Brząkowski