Month: August 2023

The doubts with salary on request relate to the form of agreement for the deduction from the full wages. It is a matter of developing mechanisms that make the employee’s consent to the deduction of paid funds from future remuneration valid. The Labour Code requires, that an employee’s consent to a deduction be given “in writing”. We believe this does not necessarily mean the traditional written form, as it is not explicitly stated in the provisions. – Robert Stępień and Katarzyna Witkowska-Pertkiewicz comment for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

The article in Polish is avialible here.

Recently, there has been a stir around Poland’s implementation of the EU directive on improving working conditions of digital platforms workers. 2025’s implementation deadline seems more and more realistic.Although generally speaking this directive only concerns people working digital platforms such as Uber (that gave its name to ‘employment uberisation’), it may have far-reaching practical impact on Polish labour market.

1. What is the aim of the directive?

The directive provides for a rebuttable legal presumption that the contractual relationship between an online platform and a person performing duties through that platform should be considered an employment relationship.
In reality, in order to ensure equal treatment of all workers, this presumption may be extended to other industry sectors as well.

2. What will be the consequences of the directive implementation?

The proposed changes will potentially affect up to several millions of people who are currently working with companies under B2B and other civil law contracts. The effect of the implementation will be automatic reclassification of these contracts as employment agreements.

According to the draft directive, the presumption of employment relationship’s existence will be rebuttable during court or administrative proceedings. The roles will thus be reversed. Currently a person co-operating under a B2B contract may claim the existence of employment relationship in court. However, after the implementation – as the employment relationship will be presumed – companies will have to claim existence of relationships other than the employment relationship.

Until the presumption of an employment relationship is lifted, those who were cooperating under B2B agreements will be qualified as employees, which means that they will be automatically granted employee rights, such as minimum wage, paid holidays, as well as any parental rights resulting, for example, from the recent implementation of the work-life balance directive.

On the other hand, they will be also treated as employees in terms of taxes and contributions. From a strictly financial point of view, the change will be disadvantageous for a significant number of people previously working on the basis of a B2B contract.

Do not hesitate to contact us to develop the best solutions and models for cooperation with your employees now!

Citizens of Ukraine with the so-called UKR status, i.e. covered by temporary protection in Poland based on the so-called Ukrainian Special Bill, should each time present their diia.pl electronic document and declare their intention to continue using temporary protection in Poland when they return to Poland after a short stay abroad. Otherwise, they may be unjustifiably removed from the UKR register and in practice lose the possibility of exercising rights related to the UKR status, despite the fact that they stayed outside Poland for less than 30 days (and in the light of the provisions of the Special Act, only staying abroad for more than 30 days entails the loss of the UKR status).

The above follows from the explanations of the Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration presented in response to the inquiry of the Polish Commissioner for Citizens’ Rights. According to the Ministry’s explanations, the risk of unjustified loss of the UKR status results from technical conditions regarding the flow of information between various registers in which the data of foreigners entering Poland are recorded. Therefore, the Ministry recommends that Ukrainian citizens entering Poland should themselves make sure that their entry is recorded in the appropriate register by the Border Guard. The Border Guard had published the same recommendations on its website as early as January 2023 (which was pointed out by the Commissioner for Human Rights in his inquiry to the Ministry).

The inquiry of the Ombudsman and the response of the Ministry of the Interior are published on the website of the Ombudsman, here.

In the event of unjustified loss of the UKR status by a Ukrainian citizen who stayed outside Poland for less than 30 days, it is possible to regain this status, with retroactive effect from the moment of its loss. This requires taking additional steps at the commune office and in practice it may be difficult if a Ukrainian citizen does not have evidence confirming that his stay outside Poland did not actually exceed 30 days.

If an individual presents themselves on social media as an employee of a particular company and publishes photos with the employer’s logo or characteristic products, I have no doubt that they may be dismissed after publishing hateful posts. The employer has the right to protect the image of the company and counteract the association with employing and tolerating prejudiced individuals. – Bartosz Tomanek comments for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Article in Polish is avialible here.