flash news - Labour and employment law

On Tuesday, 25 November, a draft bill comprehensively implementing the Pay Transparency Directive was entered into the Council of Ministers' list of legislative and program work (UC127). On this occasion, an outline of the new regulations was revealed. 

Polish regulations are largely intended to replicate the requirements of the Directive. The following elements deserve particular attention:

Poland should implement the EU Directive on pay transparency by June next year. Thus far, a law implementing one of its articles has been passed, and a special team at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has been working on a draft second law since December 2024.

The Government Legislation Center website has published a changed version of the deregulation bill which we described on our portal. The bill relaxes the formal requirements that apply to certain documents that are mentioned in the Labour Code, and clarifies issues related to employee representation in matters concerning a Company Social Benefits Fund (ZFŚS) and the deadline for paying the cash equivalent for unused vacation leave.

On 11 July, wage negotiations in the Social Dialogue Council ended, but without agreement between the government, trade unions, or employers. As a result, the Council of Ministers on its own will decide on the minimum wage for 2026.

On Wednesday, 28 May, the Senate adopted with amendments the ‘Clear Earnings’ Act, which is to introduce mechanisms for transparency of remuneration at the recruitment stage. Today, 4 June, the Senate's amendments were approved by the Sejm's Extraordinary Committee for Changes in Codification.

The second reading of the parliamentary proposal for the salary transparency bill is envisaged even in the next parliamentary session in the Sejm (at the beginning of May). We discussed the original version of the bill in an article on our website. In April, a Sejm subcommittee approved a new, shorter version of the bill, drawn up in consultation with officials at the Ministry of Family, Labour, and Social Policy.