12 Labour Inspectorate Rulings — First Takeaways for Employers

Poland’s National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) has already issued 12 interpretations based on its new powers. In each case, it assesses the relationship between the parties as a whole – the form of the contract, its name, or the parties’ declared intent are not decisive. What matters is how the cooperation actually functions in practice.

At the same time, it is increasingly clear that the elements set out directly in the Labour Code carry particular weight, including:

• broadly understood managerial supervision,
• the personal nature of the work performed,
• a defined place and time of performing duties.

Supervision and subordination take centre stage

In its rulings, PIP examines in detail who organises the work, assigns day-to-day tasks, decides how they are to be carried out, and whether the contractor retains genuine autonomy.

The real – rather than merely contractual – possibility of substitution is also significant. This is closely linked to the assessment of whether a person is obliged to perform the work personally.

PIP also takes into account the place and time of performing duties, the nature of the tasks carried out, the method of remuneration, and who bears the business risk. All of these factors feed into the overall assessment of the relationship, but the focus is increasingly shifting toward the fundamental criteria characteristic of an employment relationship.

A direction is emerging, but no settled line yet

Of the 12 rulings issued so far, as many as 8 concluded that the model in question constituted an employment relationship. That is still too few to speak of a settled interpretative line, but the direction PIP is heading in is becoming clearer. The outcome of any given case remains difficult to predict, as similar circumstances are not always assessed the same way.

We’re keeping a close eye on this and analysing further rulings. If you’d like to check which elements of your cooperation model may be decisive from PIP’s perspective, feel free to reach out to Marta Chacińska, Marta Dominiak-Sporna, or Mateusz Lasak.