Table of Contents:
- What periods will be included in the length of service?
- When do the changes take effect?
On July 9, 2024, a draft amendment to the Labor Code, which had been announced back in January of this year, was published. This amendment pertains to changes in determining the length of service. The new regulations stipulate that the changes will cover both the so-called company-specific and general length of service. Currently, there is no general principle for determining the length of service for acquiring rights to all employee benefits and entitlements resulting from the employment relationship. The existing provisions of the Act of June 26, 1974 – the Labor Code, provide for the following:
- Company-specific length of service – i.e., including in the period of employment of the employee, on which a given entitlement resulting from the employment relationship depends, only the period of work with a given employer (this applies, for example, to determining the length of the notice period for a fixed-term or indefinite-term employment contract, as well as the amount of severance pay due to termination of the employment contract and posthumous severance pay);
- General length of service – i.e., including in the period of employment of the employee, on which a given entitlement resulting from the employment relationship depends, periods of work with all employers (this applies to determining the length of the employee’s vacation leave and the right to parental leave).
What periods will be included in the length of service?
According to the newly added Article 3021 § 1 of the Labor Code, the period of employment will include periods during which a natural person conducted non-agricultural activities and periods of cooperation with a person conducting non-agricultural activities, for which pension, disability, or accident insurance contributions were paid, subject to § 3. Employees who were previously employed under legal relationships other than an employment relationship will have periods of self-employment, cooperation under a mandate contract or agency agreement, as well as periods of activity such as:
- as a creator or artist,
- in the scope of a liberal profession,
- as a nanny (under an “activation agreement”),
- as a partner in a single-member limited liability company and as a partner in a general partnership, limited partnership, or partnership.
Periods for which social security contributions were paid, as well as periods exempt from contributions based on separate regulations (students, start-up relief), will be included. Also, documented periods of non-employment income-generating activities abroad will be included. Currently, the draft does not provide for the inclusion of periods of cooperation under a specific task contract (umowa o dzieło) in the length of service.
The proposed regulations significantly fulfill the postulate that employee rights and access to positions requiring confirmed professional experience should be the same regardless of the legal and organizational form of previous work.
When do the changes take effect?
The draft confirms that employee rights resulting from the inclusion of the aforementioned periods will be granted from the effective date of the law, i.e., from January 1, 2026. A sufficiently long vacatio legis is necessary for employees to have time to submit certificates from the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) and for employers to determine the length of service under the new rules and make any necessary changes to company regulations.
The draft law is available at:
https://legislacja.rcl.gov.pl/projekt/12387051/katalog/13069357#13069357
