On the one hand, during the notice period, the employer may oblige the employee to use the holiday leave he / she is entitled to (Article 1671 of the Polish Labor Code). On the other hand, if the employee’s employment contract is terminated for at least 2 weeks, he or she retains the right to take advantage of the dismissal for job search (Art. 37 of the Polish Labor Code).

Clients of our PRWT accounting office ask how to reconcile the collision of these two employee powers. Can an employee who takes a leave of absence during the period of notice of his employment contract at the same time take eave of the days off to look for a job during the period of notice? There is also often a doubt as to whether the employer should inform in the wording of the notice about the employee’s right to use days off to look for a job.

At the outset, it should be emphasized that the employer is not obliged to include in the content of the statement submitted to the employee on the termination of the employment contract information on the right to use days off to look for a job. Such an exemption is granted to the employee upon his written request. However, when referring to the issue of the possibility of granting a dismissal to look for work when the employee is on vacation during the period of notice of the employment contract, it should be emphasized that the dismissal for looking for work is due from work, i.e. the employee will not be able to take advantage of it in a situation when during the notice period he was released by the employer from the obligation to provide it. Moreover, if the employee remains on leave during the period of notice, the employee does not perform work, therefore dismissal for job-search during that period would result in a situation where the dismissal for job-search would not be granted for “work”, but rather for “rest”. Therefore, it should be considered that the dismissal for job search during the period of notice in which the employee takes the vacation leave would be pointless.