Newsletter | Employment law in Poland | January 2026

 

Changes to sick leave signed by the President

On 7 January 2026, the President of Poland signed an act amending the Act on the social insurance system and certain other acts. 

The amendment clarifies the provisions concerning the control of the correctness of decisions on temporary incapacity for work and the issuance of medical certificates. The changes in this area will come into force on 27 January 2026.

In addition, under the new regulations, at the request of the insured person, it will be possible to perform work in one place while taking sick leave at another place of work. It will therefore be possible, for example, to perform mental work while on sick leave covering employment involving physical work. A person employed by two employers/contribution payer at the same time will be able to ask their doctor to issue only one sick leave certificate instead of two. The entry into force of the new regulations will mean a departure from the current rule applied by ZUS, according to which any gainful employment for one contribution payer during the period of receiving sickness benefits from employment with another contribution payer deprives the insured person of the right to benefits for the entire period of sick leave.

The rules for checking the correct use of sick leave, which were previously regulated in a separate regulation, have also been clarified. These changes will come into force at the beginning of next year, i.e. 1 January 2027.

 

Electronic communication between employees and employers

On 7 January 2026, the President of the Republic of Poland signed an amendment to the Labor Code.

The main purpose of the amendment is to introduce the possibility of using electronic forms (i.e., e-mail, SMS messages, instant messaging, HR software) to perform selected activities related to labor law. Until now, the acceptable form was written or an equivalent electronic form, including, among others, a qualified electronic signature.

After the change, some of the documents that most often required written form can be prepared in paper or electronic form. This will apply, among other things, to providing employees with information about monitoring in the workplace, providing information about the conditions of the transfer of the workplace to another employer, consulting the trade union functioning at the employer on the intention to terminate an employment contract, requesting time off for overtime worked, and requesting unpaid leave. 

The new regulations came into force on 27 January 2026.

 

Changes in the rules for paying cash equivalents

As part of the amendment to the Labor Code of 7 January 2026, the rules for the payment of cash equivalents have also changed.

Under the new regulations, cash compensation for unused holiday leave will be paid on the date of salary payment. An exception is made for situations where this date falls before the end of the employment relationship – in such cases, compensation will be paid within 10 days of the end of the employment relationship.

These changes entered into force on 27 January 2026.

 

Changes to the act on the company social benefits fund

On 7 January 2026, the President of the Republic of Poland also signed an amendment to the Act on the Company Social Benefits Fund.

The amendment concerns regulations on employee representation in matters relating to the company social benefits fund. Under the new provisions, the employer is required to agree on the remuneration regulations and the Company Social Benefits Fund regulations with employees (at least two) selected by the staff to represent their interests. The current regulations specified only one representative.

The new regulations entered into force on 27 January 2026.

 

Content of the draft act on transparency of remuneration published

On 16 December 2025, the Government Legislation Center published a draft of the Act on strengthening the application of the right to equal pay for women and men for equal work or work of equal value. 

The draft imposes on employers, among other things, the obligation to evaluate job positions, i.e., to determine the criteria for setting employee remuneration, remuneration levels, and remuneration increases in an objective and gender-neutral manner, as well as in a manner that excludes any direct or indirect discrimination based on gender. The employer is required to provide employees with access to this information. In the case of entities employing fewer than 50 employees, information on salary increase criteria will be made available by employers at the employee's request within 14 days of receiving such a request.

Employees will also be able to request information from their employer about their individual salary level and average salary levels broken down by gender for categories of employees performing the same work as them or work of equal value to their work. 

The Act also provides for the obligation to prepare a report on the pay gap between female and male employees for employers with at least 100 employees. For smaller entities, this will be optional. The gap will be reported to the competent monitoring authority annually or every three years, depending on the number of employees. Violation of the new regulations may result in a fine of between PLN 3,000 and PLN 50,000. 

The Act is to enter into force on 7 June 2026.

 

Announcements on further works on the state labour inspectorate reform

An agreement has been reached within the ruling coalition to continue work on the reform of the National Labour Inspectorate (PIP). The assumptions modified in relation to the original version of the reform project boil down to, among other things, maintaining the administrative path of Inspectorate's activities (i.e. Through administrative decisions issued by labour inspectors), while linking the grounds for issuing them to the Supreme Court's case law on the existence of an employment relationship. 

In the ‘new’ version of the reform draft, PIP inspections are to consist of two stages. First, inspectors will issue corrective orders aimed at voluntary adjustment of the cooperation model (e.g. From a B2B contract to an employment contract). Only if such corrective ‘measures’ prove ineffective will the labour inspector issue a decision to convert the civil law contract into an employment contract, which, however, will be suspended until the conclusion of any appeal proceedings before the labour court under the new, accelerated procedure. In addition, the institution of individual interpretations of labour law, like tax interpretations, is to be introduced. 

However, there are no details regarding the timetable for work on the reform.