What's new in labour law in 2025.

The year 2025 will bring many changes to labour law that are important from the perspective of both employers and employees. Below we present the most important ones.

Increase in the minimum wage

From 1 January 2025, the minimum wage will increase to PLN 4,666 gross, which means that it will be PLN 366 higher than in December 2024. At the same time, only a one-off increase in the minimum wage is planned for 2025.

The increase in the minimum wage is also associated with, among other things, an increase in the allowance for night work and the maximum amount of statutory severance pay due for group redundancies. A higher minimum wage also results in higher compensation for discrimination or mobbing.

At the same time, from 2025, the minimum hourly rate for civil law employment will increase to PLN 30.50 gross.

It is also worth remembering that work is underway to amend the Minimum Wage Act in order to implement Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) 2022/2041 of 19 October 2022 on adequate minimum wages in the European Union (OJ EU L 275 of 25.10.2022, p. 33).

Additional leave for parents of premature babies and children requiring hospitalisation

Parents of children born prematurely or requiring hospitalisation will be entitled to additional maternity leave. Supplementary maternity leave will be granted immediately after the end of the regular maternity leave in the case of the birth of a child:

  • before the end of the 28th week of pregnancy or with a birth weight of less than 1,000 g – one week for each week of the child's stay in hospital – up to a maximum of 15 weeks;
  • after the 28th week of pregnancy and before the 37th week of pregnancy and with a birth weight greater than 1000 g – one week for each week of the child's stay in hospital – up to a maximum of 8 weeks;
  • after the 37th week of pregnancy and the child's stay in hospital, provided that the child's stay in hospital after birth is at least 2 consecutive days, with the first of these days falling between the 5th and 28th day after birth – for a maximum of 8 weeks.

Supplementary maternity leave will be granted on a one-off basis at the request of the parent no later than 21 days before the end of maternity leave. The employer is obliged to consider the request. The request should be accompanied by a certificate from the hospital confirming the circumstances giving rise to the right to supplementary maternity leave and its amount.

Parents on supplementary maternity leave will be protected from dismissal in the same way as in the case of regular maternity leave. They will also be entitled to maternity benefit at 100% of the calculation basis.

The new solutions will come into force on 19 March 2025.

Christmas Eve holiday

On 1 February 2025, an amendment to the Act on public holidays will come into force, establishing Christmas Eve as a public holiday. The first statutory Christmas Eve holiday will therefore be this year.

The change in the number of public holidays will affect the coefficient used to calculate the holiday allowance. In January, it is 20.83. From 1 February, it will be 20.75.

Higher subsidies for the remuneration of disabled employees

Starting from 1 January 2025, subsidies for the remuneration of disabled employees will amount to:

  • PLN 2,760 – for persons with a significant degree of disability (previously PLN 2,400);
  • PLN 1,550 – for persons with a moderate degree of disability (previously PLN 1,350);
  • PLN 575 – for persons with a mild degree of disability (previously PLN 500).

In the case of persons with a certified mental illness, mental retardation, global developmental disorder or epilepsy, as well as blind persons, the above amounts are additionally increased by:

  • PLN 1,380 in the case of a significant degree of disability (previously PLN 1,200);
  • PLN 1,035 in the case of moderate disability (previously PLN 900); and
  • PLN 690 in the case of mild disability (previously PLN 600).

Higher social security contributions

In 2025, social security contributions for persons running a business and not benefiting from preferences (full contributions) will amount to PLN 1,773.96 per month (including sickness insurance contributions, but excluding health insurance contributions).

Further changes

In 2025, further changes to labour law regulations are to be expected. Work is underway on, among other things:

changes to the rules for legalising the employment of foreigners. The main aim of the changes is to simplify the procedure in this area. According to the original version of the draft, the new regulations were to come into force at the beginning of this year. However, the draft bill on this subject was not submitted to the Sejm until the beginning of January this year.

A draft bill on the labour market and employment services, which aims to implement one of the milestones of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO) by adapting systemic solutions to the current needs of the labour market. The draft was submitted to the Sejm at the beginning of January

with a draft bill on collective labour agreements and collective agreements, which is primarily aimed at simplifying the procedure for negotiating the content and registering agreements. According to the draft, the new regulations were to come into force at the beginning of this year, but to date they have not yet been debated in the Sejm. A draft amendment to the Labour Code introducing the principle of adding employment under civil law contracts to the length of service is being worked on. As in the case of the new provisions on collective agreements, the amendment in this area has not yet been submitted to the Sejm.

There are also plans to grant the National Labour Inspectorate the power to reclassify civil law contracts as employment contracts. Currently, labour inspectors are authorised to bring an action before a court to determine the existence of an employment relationship on behalf of individual employees. However, they rarely use this right in practice. This is confirmed by official statistics presented by the State Labour Inspectorate, which show that in 2023, only 52 lawsuits were filed by the State Labour Inspectorate throughout the country. Under the proposed changes, the inspectorate would gain the right to reclassify contracts by way of an administrative decision.

In addition, on 13 January, the assumptions for the amendment of the Labour Code in the area of mobbing and harassment were published. The planned changes aim to simplify the very definition of harassment and mobbing and to specify those areas that have been identified as generating ambiguities and practical problems. In addition, there will be an increased emphasis on the compensatory and deterrent function of the new regulations. There are also plans to expand the content of the work regulations (announcements) to include issues related to counteracting discrimination, mobbing and other forms of violation of employees' personal rights.

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