Amendment to Labour Code - legal alert

Last Friday the amendment to the Labour Code concerning fixed-term employment contracts was published in the Journal of Laws. The changes will be effective in 6 months after their publication in the Journal of Laws, thus they will come into force on 21 February 2016.

In light of the above, it is a good time to become familiar with key assumptions of the upcoming changes as well as with transitional provisions related with them (for the sake of clarity, the latter is presented in a table, together with relevant examples).

What will change in the Polish Labour Code?

• Elimination of contracts: for replacement, for a specified task,
• Probationary employment contract: clarifying its purpose, the possibility to conclude it with the same employee for the work of another kind immediately and for work of the same kind after 3 years,
• Fixed-term employment contracts: " 33 and 3's principle", i.e. maximum 33 months and not more than 3 contracts; after their expiry, the contract is considered as an indefinite employment contract (with some statutory exceptions),
• Periods of notice: the period of notice depends on the employment period with a given employer, also when it comes to fixed-term contracts,
• Garden leave: during the period of notice, the employer may unilaterally exempt the employee from the obligation to report for duty.