On January 1, 2017, a number of new provisions in Polish labor law came into force introducing some sig-nificant changes for employers and employees and, to a certain degree, for persons hired on the basis of contracts for work and service contracts.
The first two amendments were introduced by the Act Amending Certain Acts to Improve the Legal Envi-ronment for Enterprises of December 16, 2016 and were adopted in order to simplify various aspects of labor law.
One of these two amendments relaxes some of the requirements for small businesses in connection with obligations to establish internal rules and social benefit funds. New legislation provides that companies with at least 50 employees not covered by a collective labor agreement must draw up remuneration regula-tions, and companies with between 20-50 employees that are not covered by a collective labor agreement must also draw up remuneration regulations if they are requested to do so by a workplace trade union. Sim-ilar obligations have been adopted for preparing workplace rules and for establishing a company social ben-efit fund. Until December 31, 2016, the obligation to establish internal policies and, with some exceptions, social benefit funds also applied to all companies with an employee headcount of at least 20 employees as of January 1 of each year.
The second simplification concerns the issuance of employment certificates. According to the amendment effective from January 1, 2017, employers are now obliged to issue a work certificate containing specific details of the employment within seven days of termination of an employment contract, unless they intend to conclude a new employment contract with the employee – or even in those circumstances if the employ-ee so requests. This request may be delivered in electronic form. This change restores provisions which were valid before March 21, 2011.
Another amendment in the Labor Code, this time of particular significance for employees, provides a new, unified time limit for filing appeals to the labor courts. It extends the deadlines for employees to appeal against a notice of dismissal or termination of employment without notice to 21 days from the delivery of the relevant letter of termination of an employment contract (with or without notice period), or from the date of expiry of an employment contract. The previous law provided two different terms – seven days to appeal against notice of dismissal and 14 days for claims concerning termination for cause and for establish-ing an employment relationship.
The amended Labor Code also changes the provisions on concluding agreements on shared financial liability of employees for entrusted property. According to the new rules, such agreements will be invalid unless they are in writing and signed by both the employer and the employee. Under the interim provisions, agreements which were concluded before January 1, 2017 will be governed by the old rules.
The last (but not least) important piece of legislation that came into effect on January 1, 2017 extended the coverage of the Minimum Wage Act, with several exceptions, to contractors and persons providing services to enterprises as part of their business activities. As of this date, they are entitled to a minimum rate of PLN 13 per hour (approximately EUR 3 per hour) in 2017 for performing an assignment or providing services.
New legislation provides that it is not possible to waive or transfer the right to remuneration at the mini-mum rate to another person. The amendment also requires that a record be kept of the hours spent per-forming an assignment or providing services and that appropriate associated documentation should be kept for three years from the date on which the remuneration is due.
The legislation described above provides a number of exceptions to the minimum hourly wage legislation. The most important relates to situations where the contractor or service-provider decides the time and place the assignment or services will be performed or offered and is entitled to remuneration only in the form of commission. The Act also provides that the minimum remuneration must be paid out in cash and, if the contract was concluded for a period longer than one month, that remuneration must be paid at least once a month.
In view of this new legislation, provisions in contracts for work and service contracts concerning remunera-tion should be reviewed and adjusted (either by concluding new contracts or by amending existing ones). A breach of this obligation may result in a fine of PLN 1,000 to PLN 30,000.
It should be also noted that on January 1, 2017 the minimum gross monthly wage for employees was raised, so that in 2017 it amounts to PLN 2,000 (approximately EUR 474).
By Radoslaw Biedecki, Managing Partner, and Katarzyna Zwierz-Wilkocka, Senior Associate, Noerr Poland
This Article was originally published in Issue 4.6 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.
