articles: employee rights
In practice, it may happen that an employee, who is within a period of notice, seriously breaches basic duties, giving the employer grounds to terminate the employment contract without notice (a disciplinary dismissal). In such case, the employer will not have to wait for the period of notice to expire: the employer will be able to terminate the contract immediately due to a fault of the employee, without having to withdraw the earlier notice of termination.
Nevertheless, such a decision carries significant legal consequences as the employee may appeal against both the notice of termination and the disciplinary dismissal. Furthermore, the only provision of the Labour Code that explicitly governs the effects of an immediate termination of employment due to a fault of the employee within a period of notice is Article 60 of LC, and it does not cover all possible situations. Below, we discuss common scenarios and their practical implications for employers.
Broadly defined pay transparency has become the subject of numerous discussions in connection with the implementation into Polish law of Directive 2023/970/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council. Although full implementation of the Directive is still underway (and will likely take place later than originally anticipated), significant changes regarding recruitment have been in force since 24 December 2025. The first several months of applying the new regulations have demonstrated that, although the provisions themselves are relatively brief, they raise many interpretative doubts among both employers and candidates.
An employee's return to work following an extended period of parental leave presents significant challenges for both the employee and the employer. The Labour Code affords returning employees protection and grants them additional rights designed to facilitate a seamless transition back to the workplace, thereby imposing a range of corresponding obligations on employers.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected work organisation, particularly in the services sector, but also in white-collar and administrative/office work. To reduce the risk of infection, where possible, many employees switched to remote working, and business meetings became virtual. This model quickly gained popularity and was gradually implemented more widely, even after the peak of the pandemic had passed.
The holiday season can cause considerable organisational challenges for employers. On the one hand, they should provide employees with time to rest, while on the other, they must ensure there is no interruption of operations, such as key business processes and customer service.
Helping employees to raise their professional qualifications is a basic duty of employers and is also one of the cornerstones of labour law. Employee training is an integral part of today’s labour market, in which technological developments and the associated changes in how work is organised are, essentially, forcing upskilling and retraining. This topic is also particularly relevant to the policies that employers draw up, which increasingly offer subsidised training to employees as a benefit encouraging them accept offers of jobs or to remain in employment.