Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

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The “Polish Deal” Already Revised

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Robert Stępień, Partner, and Jakub Grabowski, Associate – PCS | Littler

The so-called “Polish Deal,” the biggest tax and social security reform in recent years entered into force on January 1, 2022. New regulations were controversial from the very beginning, especially due to poor quality of the new legislation’s wording, making it vague, over-complicated and even self-contradictory at times.

The regulations have been recently amended. One of the major changes is lowering the first tax rate from 17% to 12%. It is applicable retroactively, from the beginning of 2022. It will require employers to adjust their payroll systems to this change. What is important, although the tax rate is nominally lowered, not all employees will truly benefit from it. For many employees the benefit will be much lower than expected, in some cases net salary will be even lower.

Work-From-Home Will Finally Be a Part of the Employment Code

Proposed Bill or Initiative

Authors: Robert Stępień, Partner, and Jakub Grabowski, Associate – PCS | Littler

The matter of work-from-home (WFH) arrangements (or as it is called in Polish, remote work) has been a hot topic for almost two years since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic and first lockdowns. For a very long time it has functioned in a legislative limbo, where there was no legal framework for this. A new bill to amend the Employment Code that would introduce appropriate legislation was presented recently, after intensive legislative review, being a new iteration of other already existing propositions. The new bill provides that employers would have to implement WFH policies, employees would have a right to on-demand WFH days and a right to an extra payment that would compensate the costs of working from home.

This time the legislative works are going swift, and new legislation is expected to come into effect in autumn.

Proposed Minimum Wage Will Increase Twice in 2023

Proposed Bill or Initiative

Authors: Robert Stępień, Partner, and Jakub Grabowski, Associate – PCS | Littler

The government proposed new minimum wage for 2023, amidst historically high inflation records in Poland. Current official year over year inflation rate is 15.6% (June 2022), causing low earners to struggle. Government’s proposal is to levy this burden on businesses and increase the minimum wage in 2023 twice: PLN 3,383 (approx. USD 750) a month and PLN 22.10 (approx. USD 4.90) per hour, from January 1; and PLN 3,450 (approx. 765 USD) a month and 22,50 PLN (~5 USD) per hour from July 1. This would be the first time in many years that the minimum wage would increase twice a year.

Poland Will Implement EU’s Work-Life Balance Directive

Proposed Bill or Initiative

Authors: Robert Stępień, Partner, and Jakub Grabowski, Associate – PCS | Littler

Recently the EU has adopted a so-called “work-life balance directive” (Directive EU 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers) that must be implemented into domestic law by August 2, 2022. Polish government has drafted a bill to amend the Employment Code, adjusting it to the framework set out in the said directive. The directive provides some new paternity and parental leave, carer’s leave, and force majeure leave. The Polish bill is still subject to government’s legislative procedures and has not been yet presented before Parliament, so it is very unlikely that Poland will implement these changes on time.

Government's trend is to provide wider protection than offered by the directive and for this reason it takes more time than anticipated. However, employers must be prepared that employees’ rights related to absence at work will be strengthened.