Special Bill on help to Ukrainian citizens – changes in the employment of Ukrainians on simplified terms soon

Despite the holiday period, further changes are being made to the situation of Ukrainian citizens residing in Poland. The rules related to the status of people who fled to Poland before the war are being modified.

At the same time, employers will be obliged to provide more information in case of employing Ukrainian citizens (also those residing in Poland before the war) on the basis of a so-called Special Bill.

The most important changes introduced are:

1. Abolition will allow employers to submit overdue notifications about employment of an Ukrainian to the local labour office, if the notifications were not correctly submitted between 24 February and 17 June 2022. Provided that the Ukrainian was registered with the Polish social security authorities (ZUS), the work will be considered legal. It will be possible to submit overdue notifications in this mode only until 15 July 2022;
2. As of 15 July 2022, in the case of employment of Ukrainian citizens on the basis of a notification to the local labor office, the employer will have to provide additional information (on amount of remuneration, information on the working hours and statistical data on the number of employees before the outbreak of the war and at present);
3. The above change does not require correcting of previous notifications about employment of Ukrainian citizens;
4. Due to the changes, the authorities may expect submission of a new notification in a greater number of situations when conditions of work of a foreigner (working on the basis of a notification) change e.g. in the event of a reduction in remuneration or in working time;
5. Automatic losing of the status of a beneficiary of the Special Bill (a so-called UKR status) – status will be automatically deleted when the Border Guard registers that a Ukrainian citizen has left Poland for a period longer than a month or has received documents that exclude holding the UKR status (e.g. a temporary residence permit);
6. A citizen of Ukraine who is a beneficiary of the Special Bill will not lose the UKR status by leaving Poland for more than a month – provided the departure resulted from delegating to perform work by an entity operating in Poland.
7. Regulating the possibility of regaining the UKR status in a situation where a foreigner re-entered the territory of Poland from Ukraine in connection with the war. Confirmation of regaining the status may require additional formalities.

Other works on the status of Ukrainian citizens who came to Poland in connection with the war are still in progress e.g. on solutions related to issuing documents enabling them to travel in the European Union.