flash news
On Thursday, 20 June 2024, the legislative work concerning the implementation of the European Parliament and Council (EU) Directive 2019/1937 was completed. The President signed the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers.
The law will now be published in the Official Gazette, which will trigger the start of the vacatio legis period. Most of the provisions will enter into force three months after the date of promulgation, most probably at the end of September 2024.
A bill to amend the Law on Trade Unions has been submitted to the Sejm (Polish parliament’s lower house) and on 11 June 2024 it was referred for a first reading in committees. The amendment intends to adapt legislation to new technological realities.
According to the draft, a trade union will be able to ask an employer about the “parameters, rules and instructions used by the algorithms or artificial intelligence systems that affect decision-making and that may have an effect on the conditions of work and pay, availability and continuation of employment, as well as on profiling”.
The Council of Ministers has adopted a proposal of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy on the level of minimum wage and minimum hourly rate in 2025.
From 1 January 2025, the minimum wage is to be PLN 4,626 gross and minimum hourly rate is to be PLN 30.20 gross.
The minimum wage is currently being addressed by the Social Dialogue Council and a final decision on its level should be made by 15 September 2024.
According to the latest (published on 11 June 2024) information from Statistics Poland (GUS), more than one million foreigners (1,015,100) were working in Poland at the end of December 2023. Their share of the total number of people working in Poland was thus 6.6%. This means an increase of 4.2% in the number of foreigners working in Poland over the past year (comparing statistics from January and December 2023).
The Supreme Court has confirmed that an employer may familiarise an employee with his/her scope of duties by posting such document on the intranet. This results from the Supreme Court's ruling of 17 January 2024 (III PSK 26/23).
The case concerned an employee who accused his employer of posting his scope of duties on the intranet, as a result of which he was not clearly acquainted with it. The employee also pointed out that he had never signed a statement confirming that he had read the scope of duties.
On Friday, 14 June 2024, the Sejm (the lower house of Polish Parliament) passed a law on the protection of whistleblowers. Thus, a piece of legislation that does not relate to labour law will go to the President for signature. Under the whistleblowing procedure, legal entities will not have to deal with reports of bullying or discrimination. Employers will be entitled to consider such reports, but this will not be mandatory.