More and more often, employees of our PRWT accounting office receive inquiries from clients regarding the possibility of reducing employees’ weekly uninterrupted rest to 24 hours, which is often associated with employer’s order to work overtime.
In order to explain this issue, we answer that reducing the rest to 24 hours from the standard 35 hours can only be used in 3 cases:
1) if it concerns employees managing the workplace (Article 132 § 2 point 1 of the Labour Code)
2) in cases of the necessity to conduct a rescue operation or remove a failure of a machine (art. 132 § 2 point 2 of the Labour Code)
3) in the event of a change in the time of work due to the transfer of an employee to another shift, in accordance with the work schedule agreed with the employer (Article 133 § 2 of the Labour Code).

If the case does not apply to these two abovementioned points, then option 3 may be considered, for example in case of a change in the duration of work resulting only from the employee’s transfer to another shift. Even in this case, it is assumed that the shortening of the rest may take place only when there is no other possibility and the shortening may only take place to an appropriate extent (it cannot be automatically shortened to 24 hours if it is possible to keep for example 34 hours of rest). Therefore, this exception does not apply to cases where the inability to maintain 35 hours of rest is not due to the transition to another shift, but due to the necessity to work overtime.
While making a decision on such option and choosing whether to shorten the 35-hour rest period, you should bear in mind that the reduced rest time should be compensated in a given reference period (this obligation does not arise directly from Polish legal regulations, but from EU regulations and judgments of the Polish Supreme Court). It should be noted that reducing the 35-hour rest without any legal grounds described in the Labour Code constitutes a violation of employees’ rights and may expose the employer who has made such decision to financial penalties.