The Polish government looks set to approve the amendment in the Labour Code regarding the fixed-term contract limits by early April, according to the Ministry of Labour, Mr Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
The Ministry of Labour announced the amendments at the end of the last year, with the intention that they would enter into force before the elections in autumn.
The Minister indicated that the most important change proposed by the department related to the maximum time of fixed-term contracts, namely that together with the probationary period a fixed term contract could not exceed 36 months.
"This is a crucial change which we had never dealt with before," said the Minister. "Currently applicable regulations state that after two fixed-term contracts, the third one has to be signed for an indefinite period of time, yet it is not always obeyed. There was a legal loophole which enabled to drag this period interminably. It was sufficient to make a break between the second and third employment agreement.
“It is going to be changed now – the sum of the months worked for one employer cannot exceed 36 months.”
The other crucial element of the project is to level termination periods.
“Our project stipulates that in case the work record in a given company is less than six months, then the termination period is two weeks. In case the work record is between a half and three years it would be one month and in case the work period exceeds three years, termination period would be three months. The proposed change would make the system uniform, and hence the position of the employee will be strengthened and more stable,” stressed the Minister.
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