Entrepreneurs in shock
– The situation is somewhat incomprehensible to us, because not much has changed since the quite old intersection of work on the Labor Inspectorate Act. There are no additional social consultations, including discussions with entrepreneurs, and there are no new circumstances indicating that the Labor Inspectorate needs to be dealt with urgently. We think that the topic of reforming this institution is important and necessary, but it must be a deep reform, focusing on the functioning of the entire inspection, not only the inspection sector towards entrepreneurs – says Hanna Mojsiuk, president of the Northern Chamber of Commerce in Szczecin.
The Northern Chamber of Commerce is one of the business institutions that was the first to oppose the reform of the Labor Inspectorate proposed by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy. The assumptions were to create a super-office of greater importance than common courts. No office in Poland has the right to transform legal relations between employees and employers. The Labor Inspectorate should have such privileges.
Changes to the PIP reform project
A discussion with entrepreneurs changed the project slightly, and then work on it was suspended, which was announced personally by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Now the project is back, it is already in the Sejm, and entrepreneurs are wondering why such a sudden change of plans while working on such a controversial bill?
– The current draft amendment to the PIP Act introduces changes to the previous version two fundamental changes. Firstly, the principle was introduced that the National Labor Inspectorate, noticing irregularities in the legal relationship between the parties, first of all, it will issue orders to take specific actions aimed at ensuring compliance with the legal status. Only in the event of failure to comply with this order will the district labor inspector be entitled to issue a decision establishing the existence of an employment relationship, against which the employer will be able to appeal to the Court within 30 days. There is a second important change related to this – in the course of deliberations on the act the assumption that the PIP decision establishing the employment relationship would be immediately enforceable was abandoned. This solution was replaced by the adoption of the principle that in the event of an appeal against the above-mentioned decision, the Court will issue a security order for the duration of the trial, which assumes that the provisions of the Labor Code will be applied to the final conclusion of the court case, to the termination or termination of the disputed contract. – says attorney Marek Jarosiewicz, attorney, labor law expert, partner at the Wódkiewicz Sosnowski Jarosiewicz law firm. – Thirdly, the principle was adopted that if the decision of the National Labor Inspectorate becomes final, its effects – both in the field of labor law and tax law and social security – will arise from the date of issuance of the decision. This means that ultimately the retroactive effect of the decision will occur if the entrepreneur loses the process, but it will not reach as far back as it resulted from the previous version of the process. – says attorney Jarosiewicz.
Will the Labor Inspectorate be a super office?
Is the Labor Inspectorate ready to be a super-office? There are many changes, the direction is good, but the pace of changes and the procedure of “sudden return” of the act to the government’s agenda puzzles entrepreneurs who admit that the topic of Labor Inspectorate reform is one of the most controversial and emotive in recent months.
As Hanna Mojsiuk, president of the Northern Chamber of Commerce in Szczecin, says: only KSeF arouses greater emotions. – We are not against the reform of the Labor Inspectorate. We are not defenders of forcefully maintained civil contracts in companies. Our concerns, however, are largely based on the irrational assumption that all B2B contracts are the employer’s initiative and the phenomenon of such cooperation should be eliminated. Controls, yes, but giving officials powers that will assume in advance what relations should be between employees and employers is a bad assumption. The Labor Inspectorate will still be a super-office, although without the prerogatives that aroused the greatest emotions – says Hanna Mojsiuk. – Is the Labor Inspectorate ready to take on so many responsibilities? Will it be subsidized? We still don’t know that. I don’t think so – says Hanna Mojsiuk.
Individual PIP interpretations upon request
Entrepreneurs note that the current version of the project also contains a number of other differences, e.g issuing individual interpretations upon request, assessing whether an employment relationship can be considered in a given factual situation – it is to be an institution modeled on individual interpretations that have existed in tax law for years. The differences described can be considered significant, although the current project is not free from controversy – starting with the very consent to “exclude” the power to establish an employment relationship from the exclusive competence of the courts. The issue of possible retroactive effects of the National Labor Inspectorate’s decision establishing the employment relationship continues to arouse great emotions, especially in the field of tax and social security law.
