publications - Labour and employment law

Businesses optimising their operations often cease employing some of their staff in favour of outsourcing services. Sometimes, for this purpose, they transfer their employees based on Art. 23¹ of the Labour Code to an outsourcer, most often without transferring any other assets. The main economic motive for such measures is savings on social security and health insurance contributions. However, in the opinion of courts ruling on cases in similar factual circumstances, often at the request of tax or social insurance authorities, this may be only a sham transfer of the workplace, and as a consequence Art. 23¹ of the Labour Code does not apply. What does this mean for the original employer?

Dr Szymon Kubiak, Kamil Jabłoński

An employee in the sales department of a company that sells its own products reported to a management board member a suspicion that the employee’s superior—the head of the sales department—was passing confidential information to a competitor. The employee discovered this when accidentally copied on an email the superior sent to the competitor. The company launched an internal investigation.

Dr Marta Derlacz-Wawrowska, Katarzyna Żukowska

Due to lack of consent by the only trade union established at the workplace, an employer could not amend the workplace pay rules. But some of the staff supported the changes proposed by the employer. A potential solution would be to create another, competing trade union at the workplace. Then, the two unions’ failure to agree on a joint position would allow the employer to introduce the changes unilaterally. But would an employee organisation sympathetic to the employer be regarded as a bone fide union?

Agnieszka Lisiecka, Dr Marcin Wujczyk

Trade Unions Amendment Act, changes regarding keeping employee documentation, Employee Capital Plans (PPK), lower social security contributions for small businesses, changes to the Labour Code to ensure the application of GDPR, securing a claim by ordering a worker’s re-employment.

Protection of business secrets, flexible forms of work time organisation for certain employee-parents, act amending the Trade Unions Act, storing employee documentation, Act on Employee Capital Plans.

Surveillance at the workplace, obligation to maintaing a register of employee data processing activities, principles of obtaining information about the criminal record of candidates for employment and employees of entities operating in the financial sector, lower social insurance contributions by the self-employed, directive on the protection of whistle-blowers.