Poland publishes consolidated text of collective redundancy law

Marszałek Sejmu Włodzimierz Czarzasty has published the consolidated text of the Act of 13 March 2003 on special rules for terminating employment relationships with employees for reasons not attributable to employees, in an announcement dated 4 September 2026. The consolidated text appears in Dziennik Ustaw of 10 September 2026, item 1195, and reflects the legal state as of 2 September 2026.

The consolidation incorporates the changes introduced by the Act of 5 November 2025 on collective labour agreements and collective agreements (Dz. U. item 1661), which entered into force on 13 December 2025. The announcement was issued under Article 16(1) of the Act of 20 July 2000 on the promulgation of normative acts, and the consolidated text supersedes the previous version published in Dz. U. of 2025, item 570.

Scope and thresholds

The Act applies when an employer with at least 20 employees must terminate employment relationships for reasons not attributable to employees, by dismissal notice or by mutual agreement, where the redundancies within a period not exceeding 30 days reach a defined threshold:

• 10 employees, where the employer employs fewer than 100 workers;
• 10% of employees, where the employer employs between 100 and 299 workers;
• 30 employees, where the employer employs 300 or more workers.

The counts include employees whose contracts are terminated on the employer’s initiative by mutual agreement, provided this concerns at least 5 employees. The Act implements Council Directive 98/59/EC on collective redundancies and Directive (EU) 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers.

Consultation and agreement procedure

Before carrying out a collective redundancy, the employer must consult the workplace trade union organisations on the possibility of avoiding or reducing the scale of the redundancies, on retraining and on helping dismissed workers find new employment. The employer must notify the unions in writing of the reasons, the number of employees, the occupational groups affected, the proposed selection criteria and the order of dismissals.

The employer and the unions must conclude an agreement within no more than 20 days of the notification. Where no agreement can be reached with all unions, the employer negotiates with the representative organisations, each of which must represent at least 5% of the workforce. If no agreement is possible, the employer sets the rules in a company regulation, taking account of the unions’ proposals. Under the 2025 reform, information on the agreement is now entered in the National Register of Collective Labour Agreements (Krajowa Ewidencja Układów Zbiorowych Pracy).

Severance pay and re-employment

Employees dismissed under a collective redundancy are entitled to a severance payment calculated on the basis of tenure with the employer:

• one month’s salary for employment of less than 2 years;
• two months’ salary for employment of between 2 and 8 years;
• three months’ salary for employment of more than 8 years.

The severance payment may not exceed 15 times the minimum wage in force on the day the employment relationship ends. Dismissal may take place no earlier than 30 days after the employer notifies the competent district labour office. The Act also grants priority re-employment: an employer rehiring in the same occupational group within 15 months must take back a dismissed worker who declares an intention to return within one year.

The consolidated text is a key reference for both employers planning workforce reductions and employees affected by them, bringing together in a single document the rules on thresholds, consultation, severance pay and re-employment guarantees. Its publication gives legal certainty to the framework that governs collective redundancies in Poland, now aligned with the 2025 collective agreements reform.

Source: Dziennik Ustaw, No. 2026, item 1195, 10 September 2026 (official reference: Dz. U. 2026 poz. 1195).