An amendment to the Act on Temporary Work 1993 came into effect today introducing limitations on temporary work.

One of the changes included in the amendment, which was submitted to Lower House of Parliament earlier this year, states that employers can only use the same temporary worker for a period not exceeding in aggregate 18 months over a period of 36 months.

Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak, a Polish legal firm, commented on the changes, “The employer user will not be allowed to benefit from the work of the same temporary worker in excess of limits set, regardless of the temporary worker being directed to the employer by one or multiple work agencies. This rule aims to counteract current market practices of directing the same worker to the same client for subsequent 18-month periods by using multiple agencies.”

Each employer will also be required to keep written or digital records of temporary workers, including the start and end dates of assignments throughout the period of 36 months. The amendment also states that these records should be stored for the following 36 months.

Furthermore, employers will be obligated to provide information to the work agency about the remuneration paid for work assigned to the temporary worker, as well as internal remuneration regulations in force

The amendments also introduce a guarantee of employment for pregnant temporary workers until their delivery date for those temporary workers who have been supplied by an agency to perform temporary work for at least a two-month aggregate period.

The Amendment also imposes fines for breaches of the Act including: entrusting to the temporary worker particularly dangerous work; entrusting to the temporary worker work of the same type as the work previously performed by a regular employee of the employer user with whom an employment contract was terminated for reasons not concerning the employee over a period of 3 months preceding the predicted date of commencing temporary work; benefitting from the work of the same temporary worker for a period exceeding in aggregate 18 months, over a period of 36 subsequent months; and not keeping the working time record for temporary workers in the scope and on the terms applicable towards the regular employees.

These amendments bring Poland into line with other countries in Europe that have imposed assignment limits on temporary workers, such as Germany, Netherlands and Italy.