The Act on Promotion of Employment and Labour Market Institutions was enacted more than 20 years ago. Unemployment in Poland was in double digits at the time, and Poles were more likely to migrate abroad for work than foreigners were to come to Poland in search of jobs.

Much has changed since then. In response to these changes, two important drafts were prepared in the Ministry of the Family, Labour and Social Policy - the Act on the Labour Market and Employment Services and on the conditions for allowing foreign nationals to work on the territory of the Republic of Poland .

On 13 March, the Senate approved the bills with amendments, and on 20 March the Sejm decided to adopt the laws as passed by the Senate. The bills will now be submitted to the President.

Both laws implement the milestones enshrined in the National Recovery Plan.

Job Centres for our times

Today, unemployment in Poland is low and the challenges of the labour market are quite different than those seen more than two decades ago. This requires Job Centres to operate in a different way.

What is going to change?

Until now, jobseekers had to register with the Job Centre relevant for their registered address rather than their address of residence. The law adopted by the Sejm changes this requirement. It also removes age restrictions on access to a number of labour market instruments, such as the attractive job placement voucher. In addition, unemployment benefits will be paid in full regardless of the period of entitlement.

With the new legislation, we are bringing labour market institutions into the 21st century by implementing a new ICT system for online assistance and ensuring better access to quality job offers.

Other changes include:

• the possibility of subsidising the employment of a pensioner;
• enabling farmers to register with Job Centres;
• priority assistance for unemployed persons from families with many children and single parents;
• increasing the efficiency and accessibility of the National Training Fund;
• the introduction of an education loan of up to 400% of the average salary;
• increasing the incentive allowance for National Employment Service and Volunteer Labour Centres employees from 600 PLN to 1,000 PLN.

Act on employment of foreign nationals in the territory of the Republic of Poland protects Polish workers

The primary objective of the Act on the conditions of admissibility of employment of foreign nationals in the territory of the Republic of Poland is to ensure security. This concerns Polish workers, who do not have to fear losing their jobs and facing unfair competition, and foreign nationals, who are protected from infringements and abuses. The new law will also work in favour of entrepreneurs facing labour shortages, who need a transparent and friendly legal system.

Thus, the law intends to counteract the issue of fraudulent work permits for entry into the Schengen area. How? Through the introduction of new functionalities in the IT systems and the enhancement of the role of the public employment services in the authorisation process and a better interconnection of the IT systems of various institutions.

In addition, the Act gives starosts the right to define a list of professions and kinds of work in which work permits will not be issued to foreign nationals intending to take up employment in a given district. This will be possible in the case of layoffs and closures of major companies operating in a given district. The new mechanism will replace the inefficient and burdensome procedure of the so-called labour market test for employers.