HR and payroll legislative updates: Q2/2025

1. The Ministry of Labour launches works on introducing shorter working hours

On 28 April 2025, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy announced the start of preparations for the launch of a project aiming at shortening working hours. Companies from all over Poland will have the opportunity to test different models of shorter working time while maintaining the existing employee remunerations and keeping employment at the same level. The Ministry spends app. PLN 10m from the Labour Fund to carry out the pilot project in the first year. By 30 June 2025, the Ministry will announce rules and conditions underlying the pilot project and, in the upcoming months, it will initiate company enrolment procedure to test the project.

2. Salary transparency in the recruitment process

Works are underway to prepare draft amendments to the Labour Code in the area of informing on the salary (parliamentary paper No. 934). The draft amendments aim at adding a new provision to the Labour Code – Article 183ca. Pursuant to this Article, the employer will be obliged to provide an applicant for a given position with information on salary, including all payroll components, as well as other monetary or in-kind benefits related to employment that are granted to employees, on the amount of the salary or salary range and any relevant arrangements of the collective labour agreement or remuneration rules and regulations if the employer is subject to any of these.

3. Employment of foreigners in 2025

On 1 June 2025, the Act of 20 March 2025 on the conditions of admissibility for entrusting work to foreigners in the territory of the Republic of Poland (Journal of Laws of 2025, item 621) entered into force. New regulations will be applicable to employers of foreigners from the outside of the EU, EEA or Switzerland. From 2025, also non-EU students will have to be holders of a work permit. The new provisions envisage a modernised and entirely digitalised recruitment process of foreigners by unveiling fully digitalized procedures, i.e. all requests (declarations, permits, seasonal permits) are to be submitted solely through praca.gov.pl. Additionally, the labour market test has been abolished which means that poviats will determine the limits for the employment of foreigners on their territory independently. The remaining amendments include:

• the obligation to provide a copy of the contract to authorities – prior to the commencement of employment, the employer will need to provide the copy of the signed contract to the office;
• ban on employing foreigners for 6 months counting from the start of business activity of a new company. This is to prevent fraudulent practices.
• more frequent control proceedings and higher fines – inspections of the State Labour Inspection (PIP) and Border Guards are more frequent and more stringent, and fines for illegal employment may reach even PLN 50k.
• the obligation to hold a work permit for non-EU students.

4. Planned amendments to the Labour Code regarding the length of service

The legislators work on the provisions amending the Labour Code in the realm of length of service. According to the draft project, the periods of work performance under a contract of mandate and as a sole trader will be included in the length of service of the employee, which, in turn, affects certain employee entitlements, such as the length of an annual leave.

5. New Act on labour market and employment services

On 1 June 2025, the Act of 20 March 2025 on labour market and employment services (Journal of Laws of 2025, item 620) entered into force, superseding the Act of 20 April 2004 on the promotion of employment and labour market institutions.

Among the key objectives of the new Act there are:

• introduction of a modern ICT solution facilitating job search;
• increase in the number of job advertisements in a public, government base of job ads (ePraca);
• access to services and tools of labour market for farmers;
• implementation of new tools for employers willing to hire post-working age individuals (retirees) and boosting, at the same time, the activation of senior citizens;
• enhancing assistance for groups of the long-term unemployed;
• reaching out to and supporting professionally inactive individuals;
• support in cases of collective redundancies;
• changes to the list of individuals eligible to register as unemployed and to obtain unemployed status.