- The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is preparing a major amendment to the Labor Code, which is to significantly change the rules for calculating employment seniority
- Today, only people employed on the basis of employment and service relationships have access to certain employee rights. Those who have been working for years, e.g. on the basis of mandate contracts, lose out.
Draft amendment to the Labor Code regarding length of service on July 9 this year. went to public consultations.
– The proposed change is intended to equalize opportunities in access to certain employee rights, as well as positions requiring confirmed professional experience, for people engaged in gainful activity on a basis other than an employment or service relationship. For millions of employees and entrepreneurs – explains the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy
Self-employment and contract work will be included in the length of service
According to the proposed regulations, the employment period will include:
– periods of conducting non-agricultural activities and periods of being a person cooperating with a person conducting non-agricultural activities, for which pension, disability or accident insurance contributions were paid;
– periods of performance of a contract of mandate or the provision of services, an agency contract, remaining a person cooperating with such persons or remaining a member of an agricultural production cooperative and a cooperative of agricultural circles – during which a given person was subject to retirement and disability insurance;
– periods of professional activity, which essentially constitute an entitlement to social security, in which the person was not subject to retirement and disability insurance; for example, this may be exemption from the obligation to pay social security contributions as part of support for economic participants harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic , not being subject to compulsory social insurance due to start-up relief or exemption for persons running a business who exceeded the amount of the annual basis for calculating contributions, as well as a period of relief for secondary school students or students up to the age of 26
– documented period of gainful activity other than employment abroad.
And what will it look like in practice?
The periods mentioned will be confirmed by a certificate issued by the Social Insurance Institution. Importantly, the period of performing work on the basis of mandate contracts or contracts for the provision of services concluded with the current employer will be included in both the general and the so-called company's seniority.
In the event of overlapping periods of: conducting non-agricultural activity and periods of being a person cooperating with a person conducting non-agricultural activity, as well as of performing an order or providing services, performing work under an agency contract or remaining a member of an agricultural production cooperative and agricultural cooperative, or these periods overlap with period of being in an employment relationship, one of these periods is included in the employment period.
The draft assumes that the new provisions of the Act will apply from January 1, 2026.
The ministry provides examples of the application of the new regulations:
After January 1, 2026, an employee with 7 years of work experience, after including an additional 4 years of work under a mandate contract as work experience, will be granted holiday leave of 26 days (instead of 20 days for employees employed for less than 10 years).
The employee has been employed by the employer for two years under an employment contract for an indefinite period, and is therefore subject to a 1-month notice period. Before starting work under an employment contract, the employee worked for the same employer for a year and a half under a mandate contract. Once the period of the mandate contract is included in the employee's length of service, the employee will be subject to a 3-month notice period. In this context, it should be remembered that the length of the notice period is determined by the company's length of service, so the length of the notice period will not be affected by including the period of work on an assignment for another company. employers.
On February 1, 2028, the employee will have worked for 20 years. However, before starting work under an employment relationship, the employee ran a sole proprietorship for 5 years. Due to the period of business activity being included in the length of service, the employee will be entitled to a jubilee bonus for 25 years of work on February 1, 2028 (if the labor law provisions in force at the employing employer provide for such a bonus). However, this does not mean that the employee you will also be entitled to a claim for a bonus for 20 years of service, because on February 1, 2023, the period of running a sole proprietorship was not included in the length of service. Employee rights resulting from the inclusion of periods of professional activity that are not currently included will be available from the date the Act enters into force (January 1, 2026).
The employee receives a 1% internship allowance provided for in the remuneration regulations. basic salary for each year of work. Currently, he receives an allowance of 5%. in connection with work performed in the years 2018-2020 and 2022-2023, however, in 2017 he worked all year round on the basis of a mandate contract, and in the years 2021-2023 he ran a business. Due to the entry into force of the Act on January 1, 2026, the employee will receive a seniority allowance of 7%, as the length of service will include 1 year (2017) worked under a mandate contract and not overlapping with the period of employment under an employment contract. work, period of running a business for 1 year (2021).
