Revolution in Polish labor law! New rules for calculating employees’ seniority and leave entitlements

A significant amendment to the Polish Labor Code is being proposed by the Polish Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, potentially leading to a fundamental change in how employees’ length of service is calculated.

The planned reform aims to expand the scope of periods counted toward seniority, which in turn may affect key employment-related entitlements.

What counts toward employees’ seniority today in Poland?

Under the current legal framework, only employment under a traditional employment contract is taken into account when calculating an employee’s seniority. This applies regardless of whether the employment is full-time or part-time.

This calculation is crucial, as many statutory employment rights depend directly on an employee’s length of service. For this reason, it is standard practice for new employees to provide documentation confirming their previous employment history.

Length of service affects, for example, such entitlements as:

• annual holiday leave,
• notice period,
• pension,
• the right to a jubilee bonus,
• severance pay.

What’s changing in the calculation of employees’ seniority in Poland?

The new law proposes that non-traditional forms of work will now count toward employees’ official length of service, which may affect their employment entitlements. The change is to enter into force retroactively, which will probably force the employers to once again review employees’ seniority.

The project assumes that the following periods will be counted into the seniority:

• periods of performing services under contracts of mandate,
• periods of conducting individual business activity (sole proprietorship),
• periods of performing services under service contracts and agency agreements,
• periods of working abroad (other than based on employment contracts, if properly documented)
• membership in agricultural production cooperatives.

According to the authors of the project, the periods listed are to be confirmed by certificates issued by ZUS. Periods of employment not subject to reporting to ZUS will be confirmed according to the general rules of evidence. Their inclusion in the length of service will require the employee to submit documents as proof.

What does this mean for employers?

Change of employees’ length of service will affect their entitlements. It may change the amount of severance pay, employees’ notice period or leave amount, as well as other employment entitlements.

The most noticeable change for employers will be the need to redefine the amount of leave for employees. One of the most noticeable effects may be the need to recalculate leave entitlements. Currently, under the Labour Code:

• Employees with less than 10 years of seniority are entitled to 20 days of leave per year,
• Those with at least 10 years are entitled to 26 days.

As a result of the proposed changes, many employees may suddenly qualify for the higher vacation entitlement – simply by having previously worked under alternative forms of employment.

When will the new regulations take effect and how to prepare?

The changes will now be processed by the Polish government and are not yet binding. They are scheduled to come into force in January of 2026. However, the introduction of changes will require employers to:

• review HR policies, internal regulations and ensure they align with the upcoming legal framework,
• prepare for documentation requests – employees may seek confirmation of their past contracts or submit external documents for seniority recalculation,
• update HR systems (especially vacation tracking tools).

This reform is the long-awaited answer to employees’ problems but it will definitely be a challenge for employers. Now may be the time to audit your employee records, train your HR teams and plan ahead to stay compliant and prepared.

In case of any questions regarding the upcoming changes or any other aspects of Polish labor law – feel free to reach out to our labor law experts at: [email protected].