Planned changes to the Labor Code in Poland – 2022
April 20, 2022
In 2022 act on labor law will be amended. Nowadays, project which have been elaborated by Ministry of Labor and Social Policy are on the stage of social consultacy. The legislative bill is to adapt Polish provisions to two EU directives: on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union and on work-life balance of parents and guardians. What changes do we need to expect?
Information about employment conditions
Informaton about employment conditions, which are transmitted to employees in the moment of signing work agreement will be added in some extra elements. Those information are: information about training and duration about paid vacations. Those information will transmissed to delegated worker in another country of UE or the third country.
Contract for a trial period
The contract for a trial period will be signed for a period which will be commensurate to anticipated time of working employments on the basis of an employment contract for a specified period and to type of work which is made on that basis.
The law to be employed at the same time with another employer
The prohibition of competition is to be regulated and thus the employee’s right to be employed with another employer at the same time is to be ensured. In this case the employee can not be treated less favorably.
Application for a more advantageous form of employment
The rule will ensure to employees about posibility of submitting an application to the employer for a more favorable form of employment. The employee would have such a right after working for a given employer min. 6 months and it could be used once in a given calendar year. The employer will be required to respond to such a request with justification within 1 month from the date of receipt of the request.
The law of free training for the employee
Free of charge training, with conection about his work, will be ensured to employee. It is about training, to which the employer is obligated by internal company regulations. The time which employee spend in the training should be counting as working time. Also, those kind of trainings should held in working hours of worker.
Parental leave
The aim of this rule is to include the other parent in the process of raising a child. The rule provides 9 week of parental leave to be used by other parent. If other parent does not want to use this 9 week of parental leave, those 9 week will dissapear (there is no posibility to transfer those weeks). The total parental leave will be 41 weeks (in case of birth of 1 child) and 43 weeks (in case of birth of more than one child). After changes, parental leave will be used by the mother of child, no matter if she has insurance or not.
The proposed regulations are also to change the amount of maternity allowance paid for the period of parental leave. This amouth will be 70% of the allowance calculation basis in the situation when an application for the parental leave is submitted later than 21 days after the birth of a child and 81,5% of the allowance calculation basis, when the application is submitted in less than 21 days after the birth. Maternity allowance for the period of an additional, non-transferable part of parental leave of 9 weeks will amount to 70% of the calculation basis.
Care leave – 5 days
The new thing – is introduction of care leave of 5 day in a year. This leave is for people who has to take care of relatives. For example: child, parents, spouse, who need to be taken care because of medical issues. However, the employee will not be entitled to remuneration for the time of such leave.
Sick leave from work due to higher power
The next new thing will be days off because of “vis maior”, for instance: urgent family issues which are related to health or accident. This sick leave can be 16 hours or 2 days per year. Remuneration when employee will use this leave will count as half remuneration of vacation leave.
Flexible working hours
To support parents who have a child under the age of 8, legislators will provide flexible working conditions: teleworking, flexible working time schedules or part-time work. An employee will be able to submit an appropriate application to an employer. A negative decision will have to be duly justified by the employer.
Restriction for working at night, intermittent working conditions and delegations
Kolejnym wsparciem dla rodziców ma być rozszerzenie zakazu zatrudniania w porze nocnej, systemie przerywanego czasu pracy oraz delegowania pracowników, którzy sprawują opiekę nad dziećmi w wieku do 8 lat (obecnie zakaz dotyczy rodziców dzieci w wieku do 4 lat). Taka praca będzie mogła być zlecona pracownikowi jedynie za jego zgodą.
The next form of support will be restrictions for working at night, intermittent working conditions and delegations of employees, who take care of children under the age of 8 (nowadays restrictions are for people who take care of children under the age of 4). This kind of work will be commissioned to people only if they agree.
Paternity leave in Poland
Unfavorable change is cutting the period when father of a child can take paternity leave in Poland. Nowadays, fathers can take 24 months starting from the birth of a child, after the amendment, this period is to be shortened to 12 months.
Obligation to justify the termination of a fixed-term contract
Currently, there is no obligation to justify the termination of a fixed-term employment contract. Such justification is required only in the case of termination of the contract for an indefinite period. The proposed changes introduce an obligation to justify the termination also for a fixed-term contract.
Author: Róża Śleszyńska
Tags flexible work, labor code 2022, parental leave in Poland, paternity leave in Poland
