National Polish labor law
An integral part of making a foreign investment is the process of recruiting and hiring a reliable labor force. We advise investors on the legal grounds for labor relations in Poland and we draft and negotiate the relevant agreements. We also advise and represent employers in the process of laying off employees, also in the respective court proceedings.
As the labor force becomes more scarce due to the high employment rate in Poland, our knowledge about market conditions for salaries and fringe benefits is paramount. As potential candidates get more and more demanding with respect to an employment offer, our excellent interpersonal skills facilitate winning over desired candidates, especially white collar employees, for your operations in Poland and abroad.
“cross border” employment
In addition to national Polish labor law we advise on “cross-border” employment. As a fact, in recent years, highly qualified white collar professionals (in IT, product design, etc.) are becoming more and more reluctant to leave Poland for employment abroad. The solution to this problem has increasingly been found in so-called “cross border” hiring. In this system, a foreign employer concludes a labor agreement with the employee who, meanwhile, maintains his residency in Poland and works from the home office. Such “cross border” labor agreements are possible if the both parties are from different EU countries.
This system even permits the employer to choose the law of his home country as the sole law applicable to the “cross border” labor agreement. For instance, a German employer can choose that a Polish employee working in Poland from his home office is in fact working under the rule of German labor law in his contract.
However, this “cross border” employment has some unusual characteristics. The first peculiarity is that taxes and social contributions must be paid in the residence state of the employee. The second is that, according to national Polish international private law and the relevant EU Regulations, the provisions of the Polish labor code will in fact prevail if they favor or protect the employee, despite the choice of foreign labor law in the contract.
Consequently, during such a hiring process our role is to ensure that both parties are acquainted with the specifics of the relevant “conflicting” foreign legal provisions and to build both parties’ trust in order to create a viable and equitable agreement. In addition, we can arrange procedures for paying taxes and social contributions in Poland and carrying out all mandatory filings with the local tax and social security authorities.