Employment Law Firm in Poland for Foreign Employers

Most of our employment clients are foreign companies hiring in Poland for the first time. Dudkowiak & Putyra registers the foreign company as an employer and contribution payer in Poland, prepares the bilingual contracts, runs the onboarding and the payroll for the first one to several employees – no Polish entity needed – and, when the team grows, moves the staff into a Polish branch or subsidiary without a break in employment. We also help with recruitment, together with the HR and recruitment agencies we cooperate with, and explain when an employer-of-record arrangement is lawful in Poland and when direct employment is the safer option. Onboarding runs through our AI-supported Hiring Fast Track forms: the new employee completes a bilingual online questionnaire and the data goes straight to the lawyer who prepares the contract and the personnel file.

What we do

• Choice of employment model and full cost of each option – employment contract, B2B, civil-law contract, branch or subsidiary (see cost of hiring an employee in Poland)
• Registration of a foreign employer with ZUS and the tax office; later transfer of the team to a Polish branch or subsidiary
• Workplace set-up – ZUS and GUS accounts, PPK provider, occupational health and OHS contracts, starter set of internal documents
• Recruitment support and outsourced onboarding – recruitment with cooperating HR agencies, offer letters, candidate documents and AI-supported onboarding forms, signing, OHS training and medical checks, payroll registration; offboarding and certificates on exit
• Employer of record (EOR) advice – lawfulness, risks and alternatives in Poland
• Pre-employment screening and background checks within Polish and GDPR limits

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We give foreign employers a complete employment set in Polish and English – contract, information on terms of employment, GDPR and anti-mobbing statements, confidentiality and non-compete – from our library of more than 40 bilingual templates, or we adapt your group templates to mandatory Polish law. For board members and key staff we draft management, employment and B2B contracts with bonus, non-compete and termination terms that hold up in a Polish court.

What we do

• Employment contracts, amendments and annexes; bilingual employment contract template
• Management and executive contracts – employment, management and B2B contracts for board members and senior managers
• Non-compete and confidentiality agreements – in-term and post-employment, compensation and waivers
• Training, loyalty and property-liability agreements; IP and copyright clauses for software and creative staff
• Employee handbooks and onboarding packs aligned with your group policies

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Polish law requires written work and remuneration regulations from 50 employees, anti-mobbing rules from 10 employees under the amendment in force from 5 November 2026, and an internal whistleblowing procedure from 50 employees. Dudkowiak & Putyra drafts and audits these documents, adapts group policies on remote work, AI tools, monitoring and data to Polish requirements, and trains managers. Our guide to the 2026 anti-mobbing rules in Poland is based on an analysis of 120 court judgments from 2024–2026.

What we do

• Work and remuneration regulations, bonus and onboarding policies, employee handbooks
• Remote and hybrid work regulations, cost reimbursement, working-time systems and on-call models
• Anti-mobbing and anti-discrimination compliance – audit, policies required by the 2026 amendment, consultation with employee representatives, manager training
• Whistleblowing systems – internal reporting procedures, channels and training under the Whistleblower Protection Act
• GDPR in HR – employee data, CCTV, e-mail and device monitoring, background checks, retention of HR records; AI-at-work policies
• Occupational health and safety (OHS) documentation, training schedules and accident response
• Pay transparency – job evaluation, pay structures and pay-gap reporting ahead of the EU Pay Transparency Directive
• Diversity, inclusion and ESG social reporting – DEI policies and the employment data for the social pillar of ESG reporting
• Employment audits and HR compliance reviews with a list of risks and fixes

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We design pay structures, bonus and commission plans and benefit packages for Polish subsidiaries and show how each element is taxed and handled in payroll – with our tax advisers in the same team. We set up Employee Capital Plans (PPK) and pension schemes (PPE), the company social benefits fund (ZFŚS) and the Polish side of stock-option and share plans offered by the foreign parent.

What we do

• Remuneration and bonus schemes, allowances and their employment-law limits; employee benefits and their tax and payroll treatment
• Employee Capital Plans (PPK) and PPE – provider selection, agreements, employer obligations
• Company social benefits fund (ZFŚS) – set-up or waiver, fund regulations, agreements with unions
• Equity incentive plans for Polish employees – employment-law side of stock options and share plans
• 50% tax-deductible costs for creative work and IP clauses, with our tax team; payroll taxes in Poland
• Business trips, per diem and expense policies

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B2B engagement of IT specialists and managers is common in Poland, and since the 2026 reform the Labour Inspectorate can reclassify a B2B contract as employment by administrative decision. Dudkowiak & Putyra audits your contractor base, rebuilds the contracts and the way they are performed, and defends reclassification claims before PIP and the courts. We also structure outsourcing, temporary agency work and staff leasing, and register employment agencies (KRAZ).

What we do

• B2B contracts audit – reclassification risk, remediation plan before a Labour Inspectorate check
• Employment contract or B2B for IT specialists; contracts of mandate and other civil-law contracts
• Outsourcing, temporary agency work and staff leasing – structures and agency contracts
• Employment agency licence (KRAZ) for recruitment and temporary-work agencies
• Defence of claims to establish an employment relationship brought by former contractors

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More than 70 of our matters since 2024 concern terminations and restructuring. Dudkowiak & Putyra plans and carries out individual dismissals, exits of senior managers and board members, redundancy programmes kept below or taken through the collective-redundancy regime, site closures and voluntary departure schemes – from the risk assessment and the cost model, through the termination letters and settlement agreements, to the meeting with the employee and the defence of any claim.

What we do

• Termination of employment – notice, reasons, protected employees, disciplinary dismissals, mutual termination and settlement agreements
• Exits of board members and key managers – employment, corporate and non-compete side in one package
• Collective redundancies and phased redundancy programmes – thresholds, consultations, notifications to the labour office, severance
• Site closures, relocations and wind-downs of programmes and foundations
• Voluntary departure programmes and labour-cost optimisation

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We represent employers in relations with trade unions and employee representatives: elections of representatives, consultations required before redundancies, remote-work rules or PPK, collective agreements, collective disputes and strikes, and the Polish side of European Works Councils for groups operating in Poland.

What we do

• Trade unions in Poland – relations, collective agreements, collective disputes and strikes, from the employer’s side
• Works councils and elected employee representatives – elections and the consultations they take part in
• European Works Councils and employee involvement in European Companies (SE)
• Consultations with employee representatives required by the 2026 anti-mobbing rules

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Dudkowiak & Putyra represents employers in inspections by the National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) and the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), runs independent investigations of mobbing, harassment and misconduct complaints, and defends employers before Polish labour courts in claims about dismissal, pay, overtime, mobbing, discrimination and whistleblower retaliation. A court-registered mediator in the team settles disputes out of court where that is the better outcome.

What we do

• Labour Inspectorate (PIP) inspections – preparation, representation, objections to the protocol, post-inspection orders, including the new powers to reclassify contracts
• ZUS inspections and disputes – contributions, sick-leave checks, “sham employment” decisions, appeals and court cases
• Absence and sick-leave management – rules for checking sick leave and reducing absence within employment and data-protection limits
• Workplace investigations – mobbing, harassment and discrimination complaints, misconduct, conflicts of interest; report and recommended action
• Labour court litigation – mobbing claims, discrimination, unfair dismissal, overtime, bonuses and severance
• Mediation and negotiation of settlements with departing employees
• Accidents at work and crisis response – accident procedure, reporting, contact with PIP and the prosecutor, defence of managers

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With the firm’s M&A lawyers we cover the employment side of acquisitions and reorganisations in Poland: due diligence of the target with a red-flag report, transfers of employees between entities under Article 23¹ of the Labour Code – in asset deals, outsourcing and group reorganisations – and the harmonisation of terms, regulations and payroll after closing.

What we do

• Employment and HR due diligence of Polish targets, vendor due diligence
• Transfer of undertaking (Article 23¹ Labour Code) – information and consultation duties, employee notices, personnel-file handover, choice between transfer and re-hiring
• Post-acquisition integration – harmonisation of contracts, regulations and benefits; intra-group transfers
• Liquidation of a Polish employer versus transfer to a branch of the parent – comparison and execution

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We handle the employment-law side of staff crossing borders: posting of workers to and from Poland with the notifications, terms of employment and A1 certificates, employees working remotely from another country, and employment contracts for foreign nationals – whose work and residence permits are obtained by our Immigration team.

What we do

• Posting of workers to and from Poland – posting notifications, host-country terms, A1 certificates with our payroll team
• Remote work from abroad – employment, tax and social-security effects, with our tax advisers
• Employment contracts for foreign nationals; work permits and residence permits by our Immigration practice
• Intra-group transfers and secondments, with the ICT residence permit

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