Newsletter | Employment law in Poland | September 2026

Outstanding annual leave must be granted by 30 September

Article 168 of the Labour Code stipulates that an employer must grant any outstanding annual leave from the previous calendar year by 30 September of the following year at the latest. Consequently, annual leave for 2025, if not yet taken, must be granted to the employee by 30 September 2026 at the latest.

Employers should regularly review the status of outstanding annual leave and set dates for its take-up well in advance. Failure to meet the deadline does not result in the right to annual leave lapsing – the right to claim such leave only becomes time-barred three years after the due date. At the same time, failure to grant an employee their entitled annual leave constitutes a breach of the employee’s rights, punishable by a fine of between PLN 2,000 and 60,000.

An employer may instruct an employee to take their outstanding annual leave without obtaining their consent. The possibility of such a unilateral instruction has been confirmed in the case law of the Polish Supreme Court.

Minimum wage and hourly rate in 2027

On 15 September 2026, a draft regulation of the Council of Ministers on the amount of the minimum wage and the minimum hourly rate for the following year was published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre. 

From 1 January 2027, the minimum wage will be PLN 4,950 gross per month, which is PLN 144 more than at present. The minimum hourly rate will be set at PLN 32.30, which is PLN 0,90 more than this year.

New draft bill on the minimum wage

On 8 September 2026, a further version of the draft bill on the minimum wage was published. The proposed provisions are intended to bring the Polish regulations into line with Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council on adequate minimum wages in the European Union.

In the current version of the draft, the previously proposed solution – which would have excluded bonuses, allowances and awards from the remuneration taken into account when comparing it with the minimum wage – has been abandoned. These components may still be taken into account when assessing whether an employee receives at least the minimum wage. 

However, the provision has been retained whereby the level of the indicative reference value against which the minimum wage is to be compared is to be set at a higher level (55 per cent of the forecast average wage in the national economy, as adopted for the drafting of the budget bill).

The draft is currently at the stage of being approved by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers.

Clarifications regarding the formulation of gender-neutral job titles

In response to a parliamentary question, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy provided clarifications regarding the application of provisions of the Labour Code which require recruitment advertisements and job titles to be gender-neutral. 

According to the Ministry, any form that does not indicate that only a man or only a woman can hold a given post is acceptable.

The Ministry highlighted several acceptable methods of meeting this requirement: the use of compound forms incorporating both genders (e.g. ‘female/male teacher’), using a single grammatical form with a F/M annotation (e.g. ‘male/female nurse’), phrasing the advertisement as a search for a person for a given post (e.g. ‘we are looking for a welder’) or specifying the type of work to be performed instead of the job title (e.g. ‘employment in site cleaning’). 

Another draft amendment to the Foreigners Act 

On 28 September 2026, the Ministry of the Interior and Administration presented an updated version of the draft bill amending the Foreigners Act. The main aim of the proposed changes is to significantly speed up the processing of applications for temporary residence permits submitted by nationals of selected third countries whose presence does not pose an increased migration risk.

The draft bill provides, amongst other things, for the introduction of a mechanism for the tacit conclusion of proceedings in cases concerning temporary residence permits. If the competent provincial governor (wojewoda) does not issue a decision within 60 days of the application being submitted, the foreign national’s application is deemed to have been granted in full. A temporary residence permit issued under the tacit closure procedure is to remain valid for a period of 2 years. The foreign national will be able to obtain a certificate confirming the tacit conclusion of the proceedings in electronic form. 

The simplified procedure is to apply to citizens of countries with the most developed economies and the highest wage levels, namely Australia, Japan, South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 

The draft is currently at the stage of consultation, public consultation and review.