Modified Art. 25 of the Polish Labor Code contains new regulations on concluding contracts for a trial period. Clients of our PRWT accounting office ask how the issue of concluding contracts for a trial period looks like now.

Employment contracts for a trial period are concluded by employers in order to check the professional qualifications of the employee and the possibility of his employment in the performance of a given type of work. Such a contract is concluded for a period not exceeding three months. However, attention should be paid to the introduced differences in terms of the period for which this contract is concluded due to the period for which the fixed-term contract is to be concluded in the future. This period is:

1 month, when the intention is to conclude a contract for a definite period of less than 6 months;

2 months, when the intention is to conclude a fixed-term contract of at least 6 months and less than 12 months.

In addition, a new solution is the possibility for the parties to agree that the contract is extended by the time of the leave and by the time of other justified absence of the employee from work, if such absences occur. In addition, the parties may also extend the period for which the contract was concluded once by a maximum of one month (applies to contracts concluded for 1 month or 2 months). However, the regulation providing for the possibility of re-employing the same employee under a contract for a trial period after at least 3 years from the date of termination or expiration of the previous employment contract, if the employee is to be employed to perform the same type of work, has been removed.