Amendments to the provisions on the posting of employees within provision of services
The Polish Parliament is currently working on an amendment of the act on the posting of employees within provision of services in connection with Directive 2018/957, which is to introduce several changes in this area. The changes shall come into force on 30 July 2020 at the latest.
This act is applicable to foreign employers posting employees in Poland. With respect to Polish employers posting their employees to other EU/EEA countries, respective local legislation being in force in a given country and implementing the Directive 2018/957 will be applicable.
The most important changes include:
- Minimal employment conditions. Selected employment conditions of employees posted to Poland cannot be worse than those arising out of Polish law provisions and other regulations pertaining to obligations and rights of employees. The abovementioned is in particular applicable to:
– working time and rest periods;
– paid annual leave;
– remuneration (understood as any remuneration’s components and not merely the basic salary as it currently is the case);
– health, safety and hygiene at work;
– business travel expenses on and from the territory of Poland.
These minimal employment conditions will be applicable for the first 12 months of the posting. This period might be extended up to 18 months on the basis of a motivated notification submitted to the Polish State Labour Inspectorate (PIP).
PIP’s tasks will include informing the interested parties about the minimum employment conditions arising out of general law provisions. - Transition to Polish labour law provisions. Should the posting last over 12 (18) months, to the posted employee the remaining regulations of Polish labour law will be applicable, with exception, however, of:
– procedures and conditions of conclusion and termination of the employment contracts and non-compete covenants;
– Pension schemes (PPE/PPK). - Calculation of posting periods. For the purpose of calculating the aggregate posting period, the period of posting of all and any employee is being taken into account, who were posted to Poland for the purpose of performing the same work in the same place. The identity of the work performed and the place of performance should be taken into account in such case.
- Documentation of the remuneration. The employer hosting employees to Poland will have to present, in the event of an inspection, documents confirming the remuneration of a given employee, specifying the amount of remuneration split into easily identifiable remuneration’s components and not (as it currently is the case) merely the total amount of remuneration.
- Transitional provisions. In the event of posting employees to Poland on the day of entry into force of the amendments, such an employee should be guaranteed the minimum employment conditions for a period of 18 months from the date of commencement of the posting. After the lapse of this period, the foreign employee should be covered also by remaining provisions of the Polish labour law.
How can we help you?
- We can analyse the current conditions of posting foreign employees to Poland and adapt them to the requirements of the Directive and new national regulations;
- In cooperation with foreign advisors, we will help in structuring the posting of Polish employees to other EU/EEA countries.
