articles - Labour and employment law

Some time has passed since the Polish Labour Code was adjusted to the provisions of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, but some issues remain unclear. Problems with interpretation of the provisions arise at the stage of recruitment and determining which personal data of candidates may be collected and processed by prospective employees. Doubts are raised for example by the issue of the permissibility of obtaining residential addresses from job applicants.

Whistleblowers are individuals who voluntarily and in good faith report or disclose information about abuse, contributing to the prevention of harm and the detection of public-interest risks and threats that would otherwise remain undetected. Although national institutions and bodies, as well as social organisations, have repeatedly raised the need for regulations to protect such persons, Poland has not yet developed a comprehensive regulation to protect whistleblowers. This is expected to change in the near future, as on 7 October 2019 the Council of the European Union adopted the...

The reform of Poland’s Civil Procedure Code which entered into force on 7 November 2019 introduced changes in the separate procedure for labour-law cases, mostly deriving from changes in the general procedure.

A common phenomenon on the Polish labour market is for an employee to establish an individual business and then pass from an employment contract to a cooperation agreement between business entities (B2B contract). But when deciding to modify their form of cooperation, the parties must ensure that the new legal relationship is framed in compliance with its proper classification.

Determining whether a work created by an employee is an employee work for copyright purposes has serious practical consequences. The use of the employer’s equipment or materials doesn’t necessarily mean that a work is an employee work. Similarly, the employee’s use of his own equipment or materials doesn’t automatically mean that the work is not an employee work. Warsaw Court of Appeal judgment of 20 June 2018 (case no. I ACa 18/17)  

Our blog is for everyone professionally involved with labour law and human resources. The profile of employment law is clearly rising. The complexity of issues presented in this field is also growing. It can be said without exaggeration that nearly everything in business revolves around employees. Apart from inflation in the regulations, this is affected by changes in society and civilisation, including demographics, increased mobility of workers, and growth of new technologies.