19 March 2025 marks an important date for thousands of families in Poland. On this day, legislation introducing additional leave for parents of children born prematurely and hospitalised after birth came into force. We are giving them back the time they spent in hospitals - time they have lost before.

Supporting parents in raising children and returning to the labour market is an important part of the state's family policy. On Thursday, Minister of Labour Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk visited Bydgoszcz, where she spoke about additional spots in nurseries that are being created and will be created in the coming years thanks to the Active Toddler programme and funds from the National Recovery Plan.

On Wednesday 12 March, the third meeting of the Team for the Implementation of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the EU Council on Equal Pay for Men and Women was held at the Ministry of Labour.

The challenges of the silver economy and ideas for encouraging older people to work longer were the focus of Monday's meeting of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council. The meeting of European ministers was chaired by the Minister for Employment, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk.

Great news from Eurostat! We caught up with the Czech Republic in January this year and, together with our neighbours, ranked first among the EU countries with the lowest level of unemployment. In previous months, we ranked second.

Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk spoke about the government's policy to counteract the social exclusion of young people, as well as about the priorities of the Ministry of Labour related to the support and development of local communities during a panel held as part of the 10th European Congress of Local Governments.

The focus of Wednesday's conference at the Ministry of Labour was to summarise the first stage of the public consultation on the draft amendments to the Labour Code regarding bullying. The proposed changes are mainly concerned with simplifying the definition of bullying and adapting it to the realities of today's labour market.

"The question worth answering now is how the use of artificial intelligence is changing the labour market and employment policy," said Labour Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk at the opening of the two-day conference in Gdańsk. The ministerial event brought together representatives of governments, European institutions and experts from many sectors.

Analysing the current legislation and setting the direction of the necessary changes are the main tasks of the Team for the development of solutions to support parents experiencing pregnancy loss and the death of a child shortly after birth. The first meeting of the team set up by the Minister of Labour took place on Monday, with participants including representatives of ministries, public institutions and NGOs.

Global megatrends, such as population aging and technological change, are driving the need for a broad discussion on the current state and future direction of social policy. On 14 February, the OECD Conference of Ministers of Social Policy was held in Paris, providing a platform for the exchange of ideas, experiences, and perspectives on the future of social security investments. The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy was represented at the event by Under-Secretary of State Katarzyna Nowakowska.