Poland

On 23 October 2019, the Act on the amendment to the Act on public offering and conditions governing the introduction of financial instruments to organised trading, and on public companies and certain other acts implementing the SRD II Directive (Shareholder Rights Directive) was forwarded to the President of Poland for his signature

As of 1 January 2020, the minimum remuneration for work in Poland will be PLN 2,600 gross (c.a. EUR 600). This means an increase of PLN 350, or 15.6 % compared to the 2019 minimum wage (currently the lowest salary is PLN 2,250 gross). This is also the highest increase to the minimum remuneration in recent years

On 1 January 2020, the Act of 19 July 2019 amending the Act on Minimum Wages, shall come into effect. On the basis of the amendment, seniority allowances to which employees are entitled after reaching a specified period of employment (on the basis of separate legal acts, collective agreements or work regulations) will no longer be included in the employee’s remuneration for the purposes of calculating the minimum wage. So far, this remuneration has not included: service anniversary award, retirement benefit, one-time disability benefit, overtime work remuneration and wage supplement for night work

On the basis of art. 21 item 1 pt. 148 of the Act of 26 July 1991 on Personal Income Tax, persons under 26 years of age gaining income from a service relationship, employment relationship, outwork, cooperative employment relationship or mandate contracts shall be free from income tax up to the amount not exceeding PLN 85,528.00 (c.a. EUR 19,800.00) in a tax year (in 2019 proportionally PLN 35,636.67 – c.a. EUR 8,220.00). The above regulation has come into force from 1 August 2019

Starting from 1 July 2019, the Employee Capital Plans (ECP) Act will be applied to entities employing at least 250 people as of 31 December 2018. The ECP Act does not require the first ECP payments to be made in July. However, both employers and the employees’ representatives should take some action between now and 25 October 2019

On 25 April 2019, the Lower House of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) voted in favor of passing the amendment to the Polish Labour Code. The act was signed by the President of the Republic of Poland on 3 June 2019 and shall come into force on7 September 2019. One of the changes introduced by the amendment is the modification of the provisions on bullying and unequal treatment of employees

On May 16, 2019, the Lower House of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) voted in favor of passing the amendment to the Act of October 4, 2018 on Employee Capital Plans. The main change introduced by the amendment is the abolition of the limit of 30 times of the average salary, above which the contributions for PPK are not to be deducted

Almost a year after the introduction of the GDPR, and after a long legislative process, the long-awaited novelisation of a number of legal acts to ensure the proper use of the GDRP will come into force on May 4, 2019