flash news
A draft bill amending the Act on Bridging Pensions and Certain Other Acts (Sejm Paper No. 3321), which introduces significant changes to proceedings in labour law cases, has been passed in the Sejm.
The government is working on a draft regulation concerning countries where foreigners may submit visa applications directly to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The draft act is intended to implement the Minister's authority encompassed by the Foreigners Act, which allows such regulations to be issued having regard for the need to ensure efficient support for foreign citizens.
Since June 2021, the Minister of Foreign Affairs regulation dated 28 May 2021 has been in force. This identifies Belarus as the only country whose citizens may submit visa applications through the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The newly published draft envisages a significant expansion of this list to include the following countries: Saudi Arabia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Philippines, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Moldova, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates.
The regulation further differentiates, depending on the country in question, the purpose for which a visa can be applied for. Almost all purposes (except for a visa issued for performance of official tasks by representatives of a foreign state authority or international organisation) will be available only to citizens of Ukraine and Belarus - the scope will be smaller for other countries.
Notwithstanding this, citizens of all the aforementioned countries will be able to apply for work visas. According to the explanatory memorandum to the draft, visas of this kind are the main motivation for issuing the regulation. An important reservation is that applications can only be submitted in countries where Polish consulates use so-called visa outsourcing. This currently only applies to a few countries on the list, including Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, India and the Philippines.
Taking into account the previously published draft regulation on accepting out-of-turn applications for work visas, it appears that this is a long-awaited implementation of the plan to speed up procedures allowing specialists, (shortages of whom are impacting businesses in Poland), to be brought-in more quickly.
On 24 June 2023, the Interior Minister regulation concerning the list of certificates of proficiency in Polish which confirm knowledge of the Polish language required for the granting of a long-term EU residence permit will come into force.
On 6 June 2023 the EU Pay Transparency Directive came into force. EU member states have until 7 June 2026 to implement the provisions of it into national law.
The provisions of the Directive are meant to enforce gender pay equality in member states and prevent wage gaps.
The most important employer obligations under the Directive are:
- an obligation to inform job applicants of an initial pay level or range of pay envisaged for a job based on objective and gender-neutral criteria;
- gender pay gap reporting obligations for companies (both public and private companies) employing more than 100 persons.
As a result of the Directive, it will be necessary for the employers to review recruitment processes, job descriptions, and remuneration policies in terms of gender-neutral remuneration criteria.
Workers will obtain a right to information on the pay levels of employees doing the same work or work of equal value.
On 29 May 2023 the Polish President signed a bill into law[1] that amends what is often called the Ukrainian Special Act[2], and extends till 4 March 2024 the date until when Ukrainian citizens may legally stay in Poland, if they entered the country due to the ongoing war.
Following the implementation of two EU directives - Directive 2019/1152 and Directive 2019/1158, from 23 May 2023, employers will have to include the following information in the employment certificate relating to the calendar year in which their employment ceased:
- the employee's use of a new type of leave of absence on grounds of force majeure for urgent family matters caused by illness or accident and specified in Article 1481 of the Labour Code;
- the employee's use of the care leave specified in Article 1731 of the Labour Code, given to provide personal care or support to a person who is a family member or living in the same household and who requires care or support for serious medical reasons;
- days of 'occasional' remote work specified in Article 6733 of the Labour Code.