Month: April 2022

Despite the repeal of the regulation, a company may rely on general Health and Safety (BHP) rules. What is more, in case of persons who will refuse to comply with the requirement, the employer has the right to draw consequences. – Małgorzata Bielańska comments for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Article: here.

Training for reservists is scheduled to begin in early April. It is estimated that the army may recruit as many as 200 thousand people, including employees who will not be able to perform their duties under the employment contract during their service. This has a significant impact on employers, who may run out of workers overnight. – Marcin Szlasa-Rokicki and Kinga Rozbicka comment for Rzeczpospolita.

Article: here.

The government accelerated work on further amendments to the special bill on helping Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war. The Polish Parliament will start work on the bill today (6 April 2022).

According to earlier announcements, the draft was meant to clarify problems that emerged in the application of the special bill in practice. However, the changes related to the stay and employment of foreigners go much further – some of them (e.g. in the field of issuing visas) are a revolution.

The most important changes for the stay and employment of foreigners included in the draft are:

• suspension of the deadlines for processing cases regarding residence permits for foreigners until 31 December 2022 – at the same time the Immigration Office will not bear the consequences of delays;
• issuing visas for foreigners already residing in Poland (without submitting an application at a Polish consulate abroad) – groups of foreigners eligible for obtaining visas will be specified in a separate regulation;
• simplification of the criteria for a residence permit based on running a business in Poland – for Ukrainian citizens who are registered as individual entrepreneurs in Poland;
• possibility of obtaining a residence permit for a period of 3 years on simplified terms for holders of humanitarian visas – in practice the eligible foreigners are mainly citizens of Belarus, but the list of countries will also be determined in a separate regulation;
• specification of the procedure for obtaining a PESEL identification number by people who fled Ukraine before the war, e.g. in a situation where a foreigner already had a PESEL number from the period of previous residence in Poland;
• possibility of earlier submission of applications for temporary residence by Ukrainians who fled to Poland due to the war and work as drivers in international transport – for this group of foreigners it will not be necessary to wait 9 months from the moment of arrival to Poland before submitting the application.

We can expect further changes to the content of the draft during parliamentary work.

Many of the ideas contained in the project had not been previously announced and were not included in public consultations. Our team takes part in proposing further amendments to the draft.

It is planned that the draft will pass quickly through the legislative process in the parliament. This means that changes can come into effect even within a few days.

However, the practical implementation of some of them requires both the issuance of additional regulations and, for example, the preparation of infrastructure by the administration.

We invite you to read the Forbes interview with PCS Partners | Littler, published in the April issue of Forbes Polska.

Article: here.

The special employment protection under the Trade Union Act, which in principle may be lifted only by Trade Union’s approval to terminate contract, is undoubtedly appealing. At the same time however, it entails the risk of misuse consisting in instrumental joining and taking up functions in trade union organizations by employees who would like to protect themselves against dismissal. – Kinga Polewka-Włoch and Kinga Krzysztofik comment for ius.focus.

Article: here.

Even though the special act on help for citizens of Ukraine in relation to the armed conflict on the territory of this country has been in force only since March 12, 2022, it has already had several amendments. Not all issues have been clarified, and employers still have many questions when hiring refugees. We answer the most frequently asked questions during trainings. – Karolina Schiffter and Aleksander Dżuryło comment for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Article: here.