Employment Termination in Poland

Updated: 22.10.2024

Termination of Employment / Poland – Key Facts for 2024

Termination by mutual agreement

The parties to the employment relationship are free to decide on the terms and conditions of termination regardless of the type of employment contract and without regard to the special protection of the employment relationship.

The terminationagreement may be concluded in any form, but written form is recommended for evidentiary purposes.
Termination of the employment relationship by mutual agreement in Poland is also permissible during periods of special protection against termination, as the law protects the employee only against a unilateral act of the employer aimed at terminating the employment relationship.

Consequently, there are no restrictions on concluding an agreement on termination of the employment contract e.g. during the period of annual leave, sick leave, pregnancy, parental leave, an employee in pre-retirement age or an employee who is a protected trade union member.

When concluding an agreement between the parties on the termination of the employment relationship, the parties usually decide in the content of the agreement:

• whether the employment relationship will terminate upon the conclusion of the agreement or at some other future date,
• whether the employee will be obliged to work until the agreed date of termination or whether he/she will be released from the obligation to work with retention of the right to remuneration during the final period of work
• that the outstanding annual leave will be taken in kind (otherwise an allowance will have to be paid)
• whether the employee will receive other payments under the agreement, including additional compensation in connection with the termination of the employment contract
• about the termination/maintenance of any ancillary agreements, e.g. on confidentiality or non-competition.

In practice mutual termination agreement is often offered by the employers as an alternative for termination with or without notice. Employers tend to offer additional benefits to convince the employee to select an amicable form of ending of an employment in order to eliminate risk of potential dispute.

Termination with the notice period (regular termination)

The employment contract can be terminated by either party (employer and employee) in the usual way, i.e. with a notice period. It is worth noting that an employment contract, irrespective of its type, may be terminated subject to statutory notice periods, the length of which depends on the length of service of the employee concerned with the employer.

The characteristic feature of ordinary notice is that the contract terminates at the end of the statutory notice period.

Termination letter

Employment agreement termination letter shall conform with certain criteria which are listed below:

Consultation of termination with trade unions

The employer shall notify the company trade union organisation representing the employee in writing of its intention to terminate the employee’s employment contract concluded for a fixed term or employment contract concluded for an indefinite term, stating the reason justifying the termination.

If the company trade union organisation considers that the termination would be unjustified, it may notify the employer in writing of its reasoned objections within 5 days of receiving the notification. The employer is not bound by the trade union’s opinion, but should decide on the termination after considering the trade union’s position.

Notice periods

Employment agreement termination notice periods in Poland are defined by the Labor Code, and shall not be charged by contractual stipulations of the parties (save the exceptions provided below). Notice period applicable to particular employee depends on his/her seniority (total employment period at certain employer) and amounts to:

Probation employment contracts (trial period contract) may be terminated with shorter notice periods:

• 3 working days – when the trial period is no longer than 2 weeks,
• 1 week – when the trial period is longer than 2 weeks
• 2 weeks – when the trial period is of 3 months

How to count termination notice periods?

Notice period given in months – start to run on 1st day of the month following the day of termination and shall end on the last day of the calendar month, after the laps of the notice period

Example: If the termination document is delivered to the employee on Monday 28 October 2024, the 3-month notice period will start on 1 November 2024 and end on 31 January 2025.

Notice period given in weeks – shall end on Saturday after the laps of the termination period.

Example: If the termination letter is handled on Wednesday July 13th 2022, 2-weeks termination period will end on Saturday July 30th

Work / holiday during notice period

During the termination notice period employer may order the employee:

• to use the outstanding holiday leave in order to avoid paying of a cash equivalent,
• release the employee from the obligation of work.

The above may be instructed by the employer at its own discretion, no consent of the employee is required.

Extension and shortening of the notice periods in employment contracts

As a rule, length of a notice period may not be shortened below the statutory minimum. The period of notice may only be extended contractual by the parties for the benefit of the employee.

Job search leave

In the case of employment termination by the employer, the employee is entitled to a paid leave for the purpose of looking for a job. The scope of job-seeker leave depends on the length of the notice period and amounts to:

• 2 working days of leave – in case of 2 weeks or 1 month notice period
• 3 working day of leave – in case of 3 months notice period

Redundancy pay / severance payment

Occasionally, an employee may be entitled to receive additional remuneration in connection with the termination of the employment contract. Such remuneration is called a cash severance payment, and its award is subject to certain conditions:

• the employer has at least 20 employees under an employment contract
• the employee’s employment contract was terminated for reasons not related to the employee:
  • as part of a collective redundancy procedure
  • within the framework of individual dismissal

Severance pay

Maximum severance payment

Severance amount in Poland is limited with a 15 x statutory minimum salary (minimum remuneration).

Collective dismissal (collective redundancy procedure)

Collective dismissal procedure applies when termination level within the period of 30 days exceeds:

• 10 employees, if the employer employs less than 100 employees,
• 10 percent of employees, when the employer employs 100 – 300 employees,
• 30 employees, if the employer employs at least 300.

The procedure of collective redundancies imposes a number of additional formal obligations on the employer, among others:

• the obligation to pay severance payments to employees,
• the obligation to consult the intention of termination with company trade unions or employee representatives
• an obligation to notify in writing the company trade union organisations (or, if there are no such organisations, the employees’ representatives) of the details of the planned redundancies (including, inter alia, the reasons for the redundancies, the professional groups of employees covered by the intention to make a group redundancy, the period within which such redundancies will take place, the proposed criteria for selecting employees for group redundancy, the order in which the redundancies will take place),
• the obligation to provide information on the details of the planned collective redundancy to the district, local labour office.

Disciplinary termination

Disciplinary termination may only take place if there is a valid reason, i.e. when the employee:

• seriously violates the basic duties,
• commits an offense during employment, which makes further employment impossible in his / her post, if the offense is obvious or has been established by a final and valid court judgment,
• loses his/ her license required to perform his/her duties connected with a post.

Under Polish employment law (Labour Code), there is no legal definition of “valid” or “justifiable” reason. In case of dispute the reason will be evaluated by the labour court. Nonetheless the reasons must be specific, understandable for the employee and real (not of a general nature).

Characteristic feature of this type of termination is that the labor contract expires immediately, i.e. without any period of notice.

Formal requirements for termination of an employment contract by disciplinary procedure

Disciplinary termination letter shall conform with certain criteria which are listed below:

Disciplinary termination / severance pay and holiday equivalent

Disciplinary termination does not trigger an obligation to pay severance to the employee. On the other hand, due to the fact that disciplinary termination has immediate effect with regards to contract expiration, it usually triggers an obligation to pay equivalent for unused holiday (i.e. if the at the day of termination the employee has accrued unused holiday, s/he will not be able to used it in nature prior to contract expiry, in consequence – an equivalent shall be paid).

As a result, in case of disciplinary termination, the holiday leave is not forfeited but it converts into monetary claim (equivalent for unused holiday).

Termination of an employment contract without notice due to long-term absence from work

The labor contract may be terminated by the employer with immediate effect due to employee’s incapacity or absence from work if:

• the illness lasts longer than 3 months (if the employee has seniority less than 6 months); or
• the illness lasts longer than the joint period of receiving sick pay from the employer, statutory sickness benefit and rehabilitation benefit for the first 3 months:
  • if the employee has seniority of at least 6 months; and/or
  • if he/she becomes unfit to work through an accident at work or occupational disease.
• absence is justified by other reasons than those provided above and it lasts longer than 1 month.

Immediate termination by the employee (without notice)

Under Polish law the employee is also allowed to terminate the employment agreement in disciplinary mode, i.e. with immediate effect, if an employer has substantially neglected its obligations (e.g. neglected his duty to pay remuneration). In such a case, an employee is entitled to compensation equal to the remuneration for the period of notice and in case of a fixed term contract – for the period till the end of the contract, but no longer than the length of the notice period.

Employee’s declaration on termination of the contract shall be made in writing and shall indicate the reason of termination. Termination may not take place after 1 month from the date on which an employee learned the reasons justifying termination of the contract.

An employee may also terminate the employment contract without notice, if the medical certificate is issued and it confirms the harmful effect of the work on the health of the employee, and the employer fails to transfer an employee to another position (appropriate for the employee’s health and professional qualifications) within the period specified in the certificate.

In case an employer finds termination of the contract unjustified, he may seek compensation. The compensation shall be adjudicated by the labor court and due in the amount equal to the remuneration of an employee for the period of notice, and if a labor contract has been made for fixed term, for the period till which the contract has been concluded, but no longer than the length of the notice period.

Employee’s right to challenge termination of a labor contract

Legal grounds for challenging termination

Each termination may be challenged in the court of law if it was:

• unlawful (e.g. made without providing any reason or made without providing mandatory, written instruction on the right to appeal against the termination, etc.), or
• unjustified (e.g. made with unjustified reason or made for other reasons than stated in the termination letter, etc.)

In case of the dispute before the labor court, the burden of proof that the termination was lawful and justified is entirely on the defendant – employer.

Deadline to appeal against termination of employment relationship

An appeal against termination shall be submitted to the labour court within 21 days from the date of placing the termination letter.

Remedies against termination of employee’s employment contract

Polish labour law provides two types of remedies (claims) against termination that may be pursued by the employee before the court of law:

• compensation, or
• reinstatement to work.

The choice of the remedy is entirely to an employee, nonetheless the decision as to whether the employee will be reinstated or awarded compensation is at the discretion of the labour court.

Role of trade unions

If an employee employed under a permanent employment contract is a member of a trade union (or is a person whose rights the trade union has agreed to protect) and is dismissed for reasons other than the employer’s bankruptcy or liquidation, the employer is obliged to notify the company trade union organisation in writing of its intention to terminate the employment contract with the employee and the reasons for this decision.

If the company trade union organisation considers that the termination of the employment contract with the employee is unjustified, it may present its justified objections to the employer in writing within 5 days from the date of receipt of the above information (3 days in the case of termination without notice).

The employer shall take a decision after considering the opinion of the company trade union organisation or in the absence of such an opinion received in time. However, the employer does not need the consent of the trade union and has the right to make the termination against its opinion.

Special protection against termination of employment contract

Under Polish labour code all employees are protected against termination during leaves and employee’s justified absence. In addition to that, certain categories of employees are protected against termination if they meet certain criteria (e.g. pregnancy, pre-retirement age etc.). Regular termination placed against an employee who is protected will be null and void. However, it shall be clarified that protection rules do not work against disciplinary termination for severe breach of key duties.

Following categories of employees are protected against termination:

• employee in pre-retirement protection period, i.e. 4 years prior to reaching retirement age
• female employee during pregnancy or maternity leave (this principle shall not apply to an employee during her trial period not longer than 1 month) nor to the male employee during his paternity leave,
• member of the company’s trade union organizations and trade union officer or an other persons designated by the trade union as being protected against termination; trade union officers and other persons appointed by the trade unions as protected against termination are protected during the term specified in the resolution of the management of the respective trade union organization and after the expiry of this term, for a maximum period of one year.

Any employees cannot be terminated during any leave, including holiday leave, as well as during any justified absence from work.

FAQ – termination of employment contract in Poland