Despite delays in implementing the EU pay transparency directive, Polish employees can already sue employers for unequal pay using existing Labor Code provisions and EU treaties. <\/p>\n
The deadline for implementing EU Directive 2023\/970 passed on June 7, 2026, yet the full implementing act has not yet been enacted in Poland. However, employees are not left without legal protection because the principle of equal treatment and the prohibition of discrimination have long functioned in the Polish labor system under Articles 11\u00b2 and 11\u00b3 of the Labor Code.<\/p>\n
Consequently, an employee can currently bring claims before the labor court based directly on existing Labor Code provisions and the principle of equal pay derived from Article 157(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Directive 2023\/970 reinforces these existing instruments rather than acting as the sole source of this right.<\/p>\n
Article 5 of Directive 2023\/970 introduces the obligation to ensure pay transparency during recruitment, granting job seekers the right to initial salary information and prohibiting employers from asking about past earnings. Nevertheless, the mere failure to provide salary ranges or asking about previous pay does not automatically create a claim for damages.<\/p>\n
Establishing liability for damages generally requires proving that a specific right was violated and that this violation caused harm or constituted prohibited unequal treatment. However, such actions can serve as crucial evidence in wage discrimination proceedings if used to maintain unjustified pay gaps.<\/p>\n
An employee is not required to prove with one hundred percent certainty from the start of the lawsuit that they face wage discrimination, as Article 18\u00b3b \u00a7 1 of the Labor Code requires only a prima facie showing of unequal treatment. Once the employee presents circumstances indicating possible discrimination, the burden of proof shifts to the employer to show that the differentiation was objectively justified.<\/p>\n
During proceedings, the court may compel the employer to present necessary documents such as pay scales, remuneration regulations, and comparative wage statements. Evidence may also include testimonies from coworkers, former employees, and job advertisements showing salary levels for comparable positions.<\/p>\n
Employees are not restricted to comparing themselves solely with individuals holding an identical job title, as Article 18\u00b3c \u00a7 1 of the Labor Code refers to equal work or work of equal value. Assessing the value of work takes into account professional qualifications, responsibility, effort, and working conditions.<\/p>\n
This means an employee can compare their salary with someone holding a different job title if they actually perform work of comparable value, and comparisons can even extend across different branches of the same employer. Comparing salaries with employees at a separate corporate group company is significantly more complex since they have a formally distinct employer.<\/p>\n
Claims for unequal pay can include retroactive salary adjustments covering the difference between actual earnings and the pay received by a comparable worker. This broad definition of remuneration encompasses base pay, bonuses, commissions, functional allowances, and yearly awards.<\/p>\n
Under Article 291 \u00a7 1 of the Labor Code, labor claims become barred by a three-year statute of limitations from the date they become due, meaning monthly pay differences generally lapse individually after three years. For specialized positions, total claims involving retroactive adjustments, statutory interest, and damages can reach hundreds of thousands of PLN.<\/p>\n
General contractual bans prohibiting employees from discussing their earnings are increasingly difficult to reconcile with EU developments emphasizing pay transparency for detecting discrimination. Article 7 of Directive 2023\/970 grants workers the right to request information on individual and average pay levels broken down by sex for categories of workers performing equal work.<\/p>\n
Consequently, employees may freely disclose their own earnings if done to determine whether they face wage discrimination, rendering absolute secrecy clauses ineffective. Meanwhile, employees still cannot broadly disseminate detailed salary information belonging to other workers without valid justification, balancing privacy protection against non-discrimination rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite delays in implementing the EU pay transparency directive, Polish employees can already sue employers for unequal pay using existing Labor Code provisions and EU treaties. Labor Code and EU Treaties Are Sufficient to Claim Equal Pay The deadline for implementing EU Directive 2023\/970 passed on June 7, 2026, yet the full implementing act has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}