At a glance
- On 13 December 2025, a new legal act, the Act on Collective Labour Agreements and Collective Arrangements, will enter into force.
- This legislation implements the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union which regulates the establishment of minimum wages and the application of collective labour agreements in European Union Member States. The Directive aims to create a framework for determining adequate minimum wages in order to reduce differences between Member States and to increase the popularity of collective labour agreements in Member States.
- The new Polish Act provides a comprehensive framework for collective agreements, updated for the first time in nearly 50 years. These are agreements concluded between employers and trade unions which regulate employee rights and constitute an instrument of labour law.
- The new provisions focus on expanding the scope of individuals covered by collective agreements, introducing an electronic national register of collective agreements, ensuring an open catalogue of issues subject to regulation, and addressing the procedure for concluding agreements and their duration.
On 27 November 2025, the President of Poland signed the new Act on Collective Labour Agreements and Collective Arrangements. This Act will replace the current Labour Code provisions on collective agreements, repealing Section XI in its entirety. The Act will enter into force on 13 December 2025.
The primary objective of the new regulations governing collective agreements and other arrangements between employers and employees represented by trade unions is to promote dialogue between both parties to the employment relationship and to encourage collective bargaining, which is conducted on a much larger scale in other EU Member States than it is in Poland.
A key change is the introduction of an electronic register of collective agreements (and other employer-employee arrangements), replacing the previous formal registration procedure. The National Register of Collective Labour Agreements will be available electronically, and access will be granted under the provisions of the Act on Access to Public Information.
Further, the act introduces the possibility of concluding agreements by at least two employers and expands and simplifies the procedure for concluding supra-enterprise agreements (agreements covering more than one employing establishment). The existing flexibility regarding the duration of agreements has been maintained, allowing them to be concluded for a fixed or indefinite term. Another significant development is the option to engage a mediator during the bargaining stage prior to concluding an agreement.
Flexibility has also been preserved regarding the subject matter of collective agreements. For example, they may address issues such as preventing workplace bullying, work-life balance, occupational health and safety, professional development and training leave, age management, and active ageing. Importantly, the so-called favourability principle remains in force, meaning that the provisions of collective agreements cannot be less favourable to employees than those set out in generally applicable law.
It is important to note that the new regulations allow agreements to cover not only employees but also retirees and pensioners (as before), as well as individuals performing paid work for the employer, which refers to the Polish Trade Unions Act and its definition of a 'person performing paid work'.
Finally, the act introduces a mechanism whereby individuals covered by a collective agreement (including employees and other individuals described above), a trade union, or an employer, as well as a labour inspector or a public prosecutor, may apply to a labour court to determine whether the content of a collective agreement complies with labour law or whether the agreement was concluded in accordance with the applicable rules. This replaces the previous preventive review of agreements in terms of compliance with the applicable law carried out by the registering authority, primarily the regional labour inspectorate.
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