Joanna Dudek
Joanna Dudek, attorney-at-law, practises employment law. She represents clients in litigation and mediation, conducts negotiations and drafts settlements. She advises in internal anti-mobbing proceedings and transfers of workplaces. She supports employers in creating workplace rules and policies. She conducts employment audits and participates in due diligence. She provides ongoing advice on HR law, in particular establishing and terminating employment as well as contracts with management. She has experience advising on data protection.
The principle of non-discrimination has been in force in Polish labour law for over 20 years. At the same time, there is a noticeable tendency to specify and expand provisions in this area. Soon, on 24 December 2025, the principle of non-discrimination will be reinforced once again – by adding art. 183ca to the Labour Code. The adoption of art. 183ca LC relates to partial implementation of European Parliament and Council (EU) Directive 2023/970[1].
This provision introduces rules on transparency regarding remuneration at the recruitment stage. However, it also stipulates that: The employer shall ensure that job advertisements and job titles are gender-neutral and that the recruitment process is non-discriminatory. We focus in this article on new duties of employers in this regard.
[1] Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms.
In 2024, Polish courts received a significant number of labour law cases. Statistics published by the Ministry of Justice show that over 100,000 cases were brought to labour courts in 2024.
Mediation is one of the ways of amicably resolving disputes, including labour law disputes. In practice, mediation is generally carried out in all types of labour disputes, in particular in cases concerning employment contract termination, payment of bonuses or other employment dues, bullying or sexual harassment.
The under-representation of women in the highest decision-making bodies of companies in the EU was the trigger for the Women on Boards Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2381 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 November 2022 on improving gender balance among directors of listed companies and related measures).
The Directive intends to ensure that women and men enjoy equal opportunities as well as a more balanced representation in top management. In view of their economic and social responsibilities and their significant impact on the market, the largest listed companies are now required to introduce measures that ensure a balance between genders.
A bill is currently being drafted in Poland to implement the Women on Boards Directive, which will affect recruitment and hiring policies and HR processes.
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.
Since 26 April 2023 the Labour Code has allowed leave from work due to force majeure. The introduction of this institution was mandated by the so-called Work Life Balance Directive (Directive 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU).