Bill of the employment of foreigners – the most important changes for the HR departments

Entrepreneurs employing foreigners have been pointing out for many years the need for a comprehensive change in the regulations on legalizing the work of foreigners in the territory of Poland. In December 2024, a bill on the terms of permissibility of entrusting work to foreigners in the territory of the Republic of Poland was presented. We invite you to look at the article, in which we present the most interesting provisions of the new legislation.

Obligation to hire under an employment contract

In the fall of 2024, employers were negatively surprised by the information that one of the planned solutions in the new law regulating the employment of foreigners is the introduction of an obligation to employ foreigners solely on the basis of an employment contract. The projected provisions were met with a negative assessment by the entire community, which almost unanimously indicated that, contrary to the assurances of the legislature, this would have a negative impact on the labor market.

In the final form of the proposed changes, the controversial provisions were removed, leaving entrepreneurs and foreigners to choose the form of employment appropriate to their individual situation.

Electronisation of the proceedings

One of the key changes related to the procedure for legalizing the employment of foreigners in Poland is the introduction of the principle of full electronification of proceedings. Applications, completion of formal omissions, receipt of decisions and even appeal proceedings will be conducted exclusively electronically, using dedicated functionalities of the praca.gov.pl platform. Thanks to this regulation, the process of documentation circulation will be streamlined, which will have a positive impact on the speed of proceedings.

At the same time, full electronification will mean ongoing access to the status of a given foreigner granted to inspection authorities, including the State Labor Inspectorate, Social Security or the Border Guard, which will not be without impact on inspection proceedings.

Additional requirements for an employment contract

The proposed regulations directly refer to language versions of the contract concluded with persons who do not speak Polish. If an employment contract is drawn up exclusively in Polish, the employer will be obliged to provide and keep on file its contents in a language understood by the foreigner. If, on the other hand, the contract is drawn up exclusively in a foreign language, the employer will be obliged to keep a sworn translation of it on file.

Bearing the above in mind, the optimal solution, both in legal and practical terms, will be to draw up employment contracts with foreigners (and other employee documentation) in two language versions – in Polish and in a language understood by the foreigner. It should be emphasized that the regulations do not indicate the foreigner’s native language, but a language understandable to the foreigner, which will undoubtedly simplify the implementation of the above obligation by employers.

The entity entrusting employment will be obliged each time to provide an electronic copy of the employment contract concluded with the foreigner to whom the work permit has been issued.

The amount of penalties for employers

The bill also introduces higher sanctions for illegal employment of foreigners. The previous upper limit of the fine was PLN 30,000. In the opinion of specialists, such a sanction was too low, for which reason the legislator decided to raise the upper limit to PLN 50,000.

Foreigner in the trade unions

Foreigners employed by employers in Poland often do not know that they can belong to trade unions on the same terms as Polish workers. The legislator, following a general European trend aimed at increasing the level of unionization in member states, included in the bill an obligation to inform foreigners in writing about the possibility of joining a trade union organization. The above proposal was not well received by the employer community.

We are delighted to invite you to contact our Legal and Immigration departments, who will answer all your questions about legal employment and labor law and HR aspects.