BulletinJune 2022

NEWSLETTER

No. 19, June 2022

Malinowski & Associates. Legal Advisors. Partnership

Table of contents

Employer will test employee with breathalyzer

A government bill amending the Labor Code is being processed in the Sejm.

The government’s proposal is to allow employers to control the sobriety of employees if this is necessary to ensure the protection of life and health of employees or other persons or the protection of property. Alcohol testing can be performed using methods that do not require a laboratory test.

To introduce sobriety checks, the employer will have to specify the terms of the check (time, frequency, equipment to be used) in a collective bargaining agreement, regulations or in a notice, and inform the public at least 2 weeks before the start of the check.

An employee may not be allowed to work if a check reveals the presence of alcohol in the body. At the request of such an employee, the police or municipal police may conduct a breathalyzer test or, in certain cases, a blood test.

On a similar basis, the employer will be able to check whether the employee is under the influence of drugs acting similarly to alcohol. A list of such measures will be provided by the Health Minister in a regulation.

Regulating remote working

On the occasion of the amendment of the Labor Code, which is currently being worked on in the Parliament, the legislator aims to replace the current legal regulation on the The employment of employees in the form of telework through the regulation of the remote work. These two forms of employment will not be very different from each other – the main differences will be outlined below.

Telecommuting (old rules)	Remote working (new rules)
Regularity – problems with the interpretation of this phrase	No requirement for regularity (remote work can also be provided occasionally, at the employee’s request, up to 24 days per year)
No possibility of teleworking on the basis of the employer’s order alone	The employer may instruct the employee to perform remote work during the period of emergency, epidemic, epidemic threat and 3 months after their cancellation (preceded by a statement from the employee that he has the conditions for remote work)
Lack of clear regulation on. reimbursement of telework by the employer	The employer is obliged to cover certain costs associated with remote work

 

Establishment of “social enterprises”

A bill on the social economy is being processed in the Sejm. The law will introduce the status of the so-called “”new” status. “social enterprise,” which some entities can apply for and which entitles them to a number of facilitations, including subsidies for Social Security contributions or exemption from income tax.

Social economy entities

In order to obtain social enterprise status, an entity must first have social economy status. The law distinguishes among social economy entities:

1. social cooperatives
2. occupational therapy workshops and vocational activity facilities
3. social integration centers and social integration clubs
4. Workers’ cooperatives, including cooperatives of invalids and cooperatives of the blind
5. non-governmental organizations (except political parties, trade unions and employers’ organizations, professional self-governments, foundations established by political parties)
6. entities engaged in public benefit activities (religious organizations, associations of local government units, sports clubs and associations).

Conditions for obtaining the status of a social enterprise

A social economy entity may have the status of a social enterprise if:

1. The State Treasury, a local government unit or a state or local government legal entity does not have control over such an entity (except for social cooperatives)
2. Carries out activities serving local development and aims to implement social services or professional and social reintegration of persons at risk of social exclusion (such persons include the unemployed, job seekers, persons with disabilities, graduates of social integration centers and clubs, persons entitled to social assistance benefits and allowances, persons with mental disorders, prisoners and persons leaving penal and correctional institutions, persons over 60 years of age, refugees)
3. Employs at least 3 people under a contract of employment or a cooperative employment contract of at least ½ FTE, whereby if the entity is engaged in activities aimed at the reintegration of persons at risk of exclusion, at least 30% of the total number of employees should be persons at risk of exclusion.

Grant and loss of social enterprise status

A social economy entity may apply for social enterprise status by decision of the governor. Also, the provincial governor will be authorized to issue a decision on losing the status of a social enterprise if the enterprise ceases to meet the above-mentioned requirements. conditions or when he was declared bankrupt or liquidation was opened.

Re-acquisition of the status of a social enterprise may take place no earlier than one year after the date on which the decision on loss became final.

Consultative and advisory body

The social enterprise should have a so-called consultative and advisory body, consisting of all persons employed in the enterprise (unless more than 10 persons are employed, in which case the consultative and advisory body may consist of at least 3 representatives of the employed).

The consultative and advisory body is tasked with reviewing the results of the company’s activities and expressing an opinion on these results, further planned activities and work regulations.

Prohibition of transactions with related parties

As a general rule, a social enterprise will not be allowed to enter into transactions with related entities and persons (including loans, transferring assets, making purchases of goods or services).

Reporting obligations and prohibition of profit distribution

Profit from operations generated by a social enterprise may not be distributed to members, shareholders, stockholders or employees.

The annual report of the social enterprise shall be submitted to the provincial governor, who will verify it and then submit it to the minister in charge of social security.

Public list of social enterprises

A list of social enterprises will be available online, including key data on these enterprises.

Enterprise support instruments

The bill also provides instruments to support social enterprise. Here we will briefly describe the most important of them.

Financing of social security contributions

The possibility will be introduced to finance part of the social security contributions – both for the employee and the employer – from the Labor Fund. The maximum amount of funding is equal to the amount of the contribution based on the amount of the minimum wage.

Funding may be granted:

1. in full – for a period of 24 months from the date of employment
2. At half the amount – for the next 12 months.

There will be two modes of funding implementation:

1. refund of contributions (in arrears)
2. transfer of advance contributions on a quarterly basis (in advance).

Funding of contributions is based on the application of the social enterprise, after the conclusion of an agreement with the starost.

Funding of salary and job creation costs

A social enterprise may also apply:

1. one-time funds for the creation of a job position
2. funding for salary or wage costs,

– And this is based on the rules already in place.

Subsidized loan interest rates

A social enterprise may obtain interest subsidies on bank and cooperative savings and loan associations, provided that the loans are used for the purposes of vocational and social rehabilitation of disabled persons, in the amount of up to 50% of the interest on the loans taken.

Reimbursement of construction, transportation and administration costs

The social enterprise is entitled to reimbursement:

1. construction or reconstruction related to the modernization of facilities and premises,
2. transportation,
3. administrative,

– insofar as these are additional costs resulting from the employment of people with disabilities who make up at least 50% of the total workforce.

Reduced payments to PFRON

Entities that will purchase production or services produced or provided by a social enterprise will benefit from a reduction of at least 30% (up to a maximum of 50%) in payments to the State Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons.

Subsidies from the ministry

The minister in charge of social security will be authorized to develop and implement departmental support programs, which may include grants to support the economic activity of social economy entities and social enterprises.

CIT exemption

Income of social enterprises, spent in the tax year for the purposes of professional and social reintegration of employees, in the part not deductible, will be exempt from corporate income tax.

Further fate of the FIT FOR 55 package

Almost a year ago, we wrote about a package of EU regulations with the mysterious name “FIT for 55” (feel free to refresh your knowledge here).

As expected, there was no unanimity in the Union on the stated goals of the climate transition. The biggest resistance was to ban the registration of cars with internal combustion engines from 2035, but a directive to this effect nevertheless passed the European Parliament successfully.

The European Parliament at the beginning of June withdrew to committee the draft for the emissions trading. Recent days have seen the enactment of, among other things. An amendment to exclude the financial sector from greenhouse gas permit trading.

Now the projects included in the package will be subject to negotiations between representatives of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council, which will culminate in the determination of the final content of the regulations.

Monitoring KRS changes is already in place – just how?

In our previous newsletter, we mentioned the possibility of subscribing to information on applications submitted to the National Court Register, which was to take effect as of June 21, 2022 (welcome here). The new tool has been named the National Court Register Newsletter and has been made available on the Court Register Portal website for registered users.

Once the entity is entered into the monitoring system, we can choose for how long we want to receive notifications of changes (for a maximum of 1 year) and whether we want to receive email notifications. The system allows a maximum of 50 entities to be observed.

It seems that the system is currently fulfilling its functions. We encourage you to contact us if you have found any irregularities in the operation of the Portal or would like more information.