Polish labour inspection redesign, in the pipeline since the autumn of 2025, has been an extremely thorny issue from its very beginning. In the first days of 2026, the proceedings on were abruptly stopped. The volte-face was explained on the grounds of the labour inspectors’ gaining potentially overreaching competences with regard to decisions to establish an employment relationship. A few weeks later, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy made another bill public. The mainstays of the current reform draft are worth presenting, as it is causing much unease amongst entrepreneurs who make use of non-employment contract types.
The present version is by and large based on the previous draft. This refers above all to the sea change to be introduced in the reform, that is handing labour inspectors the competences to issue administrative decisions that establish the existence of an employment relationship should the inspector come to the conclusion the employment contract instead of a civil law (including B2B) contract is fit for purpose. The above is the revolutionary component of the reform, since this type of decision did previously necessitate a court ruling.
Compared to the earlier draft, a few major changes are about to be brought in, intended to mitigate the potential outcomes for the entrepreneurs. First of all, the labour inspector’s decision is going to establish the employment relationship on the date the decision is made, as a rule. If the inspector determines the existence of the employment relationship needs to be established retroactively, he or she can send the matter to the court. This revision should be viewed positively. The solutions as proposed earlier, encompassing the inspector’s decision retroactive validity, turned out to be very controversial. The legislator also stepped back from giving inspectors special powers to impose an immediately enforceable decision. Still, their decisions can get such a distinction following the general rules.
During their inspection, the labour inspector is also going to have the power to issue an order to remove any civil law contract breaches or a failure to conclude a work contract when it is requisite. The condition for issuing a reclassification decision is the inspected entrepreneur’s non-compliance with the command to do so. Material doubts as for the practical functioning of an inspector’s orders, in terms of how they are issued and followed, are already multiplying. Mostly, there are calls for specifying the provisions on what the inspector can order during the control.
The new draft introduces the possibility of submitting a motion to the Chief Labour Inspector as to whether a particular legal relationship constitutes an employment contract. The changes include the procedural questions as well, for instance the appeal against an inspector’s decision is to be weighed directly by a labour court, bypassing a Chief Labour Inspector’s order.
Some solutions proposed earlier have been put to use in the current draft. This refers to setting up legal support for State Labour Inspection co-operation with other bodies (Social Insurance Institution, National Revenue Administration), but also to raising the amounts of fines for breaking labour law provisions.
Contrary to the manner the previous draft proceeded, the government stage went out blazing fast this time around. Since the new version is moving as a continuation of the previous bill, the public consultation was severely limited, and the intraministerial approval process only took a moment. Ultimately, the Council of Ministers agreed to the draft bill on 17 February 2026, and the legislation should start the parliament’s scrutiny soon. Rapid work at the government stage suggests there is a political consensus on adopting the new regulation. What can be expected are some amendments introduced at the parliamentary stage of the legislatory action, even as they won’t undermine the chief ideas of the bill. If the draft goes on to ensure the consent of the parliamentary majority, it will be dispatched to receive the president’s sign-off soon, and will then become law. As the draft’s current wording states it, the new regulation would come into force three months after enactment.
Dariusz Zimnicki, Partner at ZL LEGAL Legal Advisors, contributed to this review.
