[Poland] Changes to employee documentation and new employment certificate template

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy has drafted three regulations which are intended, among other things, to adapt employee personnel files and employment certificates to the changes resulting from the latest amendment of the Labour Code. What will change once the new regulations come into force?

Due to the two amendments to the labour law, the Act of 9 March 2023 amending the Labour Code and the Act of 1 December 2022 amending the Labour Code, it became necessary to adapt the provisions concerning:

• employee documentation,
• employment certificate template,
• documents attached to applications concerning employees’ rights in relation to parenthood and occasional remote working.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy has prepared three relevant draft regulations, published on 28 March 2023 on the website of the Government Legislation Centre (RCL). What does each of them concern?

New entitlements in employee documentation

According to the draft regulation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy amending the existing regulation on employee documentation, the exercise of new employee rights is to find its reflection in the employee documentation kept for an employee by his/her employer.

The employee’s personnel files will be completed with:

• part B of the employee’s personal files is also to include:

• an employee’s request and an employer’s response to the employee’s request to change the type of employment contract to an indefinite contract or for more predictable and safer working conditions, including a change in the type of work or full-time employment,

• an employee’s request and an employer’s response to the employee’s request to indicate the reason justifying termination of the probationary contract by notice or an action having equivalent effect to termination of the employment contract,

• documents on the use of flexible work organisation,

• an employee’s requests to apply for and benefit from force majeure leave,

• an employee’s requests to apply for and benefit from care leave.

Read also: Changes to employee personal files from 21 March

New employment certificate template

Another draft regulation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of 28 March defines the new content of the certificate of employment, the manner and mode of its issuance, correction and supplementation, and an annex to the regulation defines an auxiliary template of the employment certificate.

Under the new provisions, employers will also include in the employment certificates information regarding:

• the use by an employee of leave for the reason of force majeure taken during the calendar year in which the employment relationship ceased ( up to 2 days or 16 hours per calendar year),

• the use by an employee of care leave taken in the calendar year in which the employment relationship ceased ( up to 5 days per year),

• the number of days of occasional remote work, in the calendar year in which the employment relationship ceased ( up to 24 days per year maximum).

Changes to the requests for employee entitlements

The third draft regulation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of 28 March addresses the issues concerning requests for employees’ parental entitlements and the documents attached to such requests.

The draft regulation mostly duplicates the current legislation, and the most important planned changes are as follows:

• the lack of a definition in the regulation of the content of a request to opt out of parental leave or part thereof,
• that the regulation shall no longer include a reference to parental leave granted on a date not immediately following the date when part of the parental leave was already taken or to maternity benefit for the period corresponding to that part of the parental leave,
• the abandonment of the identification of the employee-father as a parent raising a child,
• waiving the requirement for an employee to attach to the request for parental leave a statement indicating that he/she has taken a part of the parental leave for a given child on a date not immediately following the taking of the preceding part of the parental leave, or an allowance for a period corresponding to the period of part of the parental leave, indicating the number of parts of the leave taken in this way.

All of the above discussed draft regulations shall come into force 7 days after the date of their announcement. The shortening of the vacatio legis period is intended to quickly adjust the wording of the regulations to the amendments to the Labour Code and to enable employers to properly keep employees’ personal files and issue employment certificates supplemented with the new data.

Keeping employee personal files – how can we help?

Contract Administration offers HR outsourcing services to improve your company’s business processes. Our HR and payroll services include, but are not limited to:

• keeping employee personal files on paper or in electronic form (E-File),
• registering data in ERP systems,
• preparation of employee documentation, including certificates of work, certificates of employment,
• monitoring employment-related deadlines,
• determining employee rights (e.g. leaves, notice periods).

HR and payroll outsourcing – see how we can help you: