The beginning of the year brought good news for entrepreneurs thanks to Prime Minister Donald Tusk's statement regarding work on amending the Act on the National Labor Inspectorate. In early January of this year, the Prime Minister indicated that the draft law expanding the powers of the National Labor Inspectorate should be considered closed.
However, according to media reports, this issue remains a matter of concern for the government. Just a few days after the Prime Minister's statement, meetings were held, revealing that work on the amendment was still ongoing, although the government intends to develop legal solutions different from those previously proposed.
Controversial provisions of the project
The amended wording of the bill is currently unknown. The business community primarily opposed the provision that allowed PIP inspectors to arbitrarily and unilaterally convert civil law contracts into employment contracts, as well as to make such decisions immediately enforceable.
The above solutions raised numerous concerns among entrepreneurs, who pointed out that they entailed a significant financial burden. If the National Labor Inspectorate issued a decision with immediate enforceability, the entrepreneur would be obligated to cover the costs associated with converting the civil law contract into an employment contract. These costs would burden the company's budget for a long time, during the multi-year appeals process.
The main argument against this solution was the principle of freedom of contract, according to which the parties independently decide on the type of contract they wish to enter into. It was also argued that the applicable legal regulations sufficiently protect the interests of employees, allowing PIP inspectors to undertake appropriate interventions.
In particular, it is worth paying attention to the effectively functioning legal tools available to the National Labour Inspectorate, such as issuing oral instructions during inspections aimed at eliminating any irregularities found.
Entrepreneurs' proposal
The business community (Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs) responded to the government's actions, which involved suspending work on the current project, by presenting its own proposals. According to media reports, entrepreneurs proposed, in particular, equalizing the rules for paying social security contributions under civil law contracts with those for employment contracts.
What are the next steps?
Poland is obligated to implement the milestones by June 30, 2026, which include increasing the powers of the National Labor Inspectorate and improving the legal status of employees. The assumptions of the new bill are not yet known at this stage, but parliamentary work is ongoing and a draft is expected to be published soon.
New bill
On January 19, 2026, the Government Legislation Center published a draft of January 12, 2026, focusing on increasing the tools available to oversee the National Labor Inspectorate (PIP). The draft does not address the issue of converting civil law contracts into employment contracts.
According to the bill, the Labor Protection Council could submit a request to the Sejm to commission an audit of the National Labor Inspectorate's activities by the Supreme Audit Office. The audit would be conducted at least once every two years.
As stated in the draft, the purpose of such an audit would be to:
- opinions issued by the ROP regarding the assessment of the activities of the Chief Labour Inspector;
- assessment of the adequacy, correctness and credibility of the annual report on the activities of the National Labor Inspectorate;
- assessing the economy, expediency and reliability of public expenditure and the award of public contracts;
- assessment of the use of resources, including employees.
As indicated in the justification, the long-term goal of the Act is to strengthen the National Labour Inspectorate, as the result of the supervisory mechanisms implemented by the Sejm and the ROP will be a more effective enforcement of compliance with labour law provisions by the PIP, as well as strengthening control over the management of significant public funds allocated to the PIP’s activities.
The justification also states that an independent audit will allow for an independent assessment of PIP's activities, which will indirectly contribute to increasing public confidence in PIP.
This is only the beginning of new legislative proposals concerning the National Labour Inspectorate – further solutions still need to be awaited.
We will keep you updated on further progress of the work.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
The law is current as of January 20, 2026 .
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