One of the very important circumstances that the employer determines when hiring an employee is the course of his current professional career. In addition to very important information on the employee’s professional experience, it allows the employer to determine what leave entitlements are available to the employee. Employers who are clients of the PRWT accounting office face various doubts regarding the consideration of previous periods of work of employees. Should such periods always be taken into account? What documents confirming previous periods of work should the employee present? What about working abroad?

The employer takes into account the employee’s working periods with the previous employer, which affect, inter alia, for leave entitlements if the employee presents him / her with a document confirming the performance of such work.

What kind of document can it be? Of course, in Poland there are employment certificates that contain information about the employee’s employment history, which is specified in detail in Art. 97 of the Polish Labour Code and the ordinance of the Minister of Labor indicated in this provision.

But what about employees from abroad or those who have worked abroad?

In such a situation, reference should be made to the provisions of the Polish Act of April 20, 2004 on employment promotion and labor market institutions (i.e. of March 10, 2022 (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 690)). Pursuant to Art. 86 sec. 1 of this Act, documented periods of employment with a foreign employer are included in the periods of employment in Poland in the field of employee rights. However, employers may encounter a problem related to various national legislations in the field of documents confirming the fact of employment of employees – not every country has employment certificates.

What document should the employer consider sufficient then?

There is no clear answer to this question, because none of the provisions specifies what specific documents should be required in such a case. However, it is important to obtain a document that will indicate the very fact of employment in a given period and its nature. It should therefore be recognized that the employee can document the periods of employment abroad with any documents (e.g. employment contract, confirmation of wages, certificate from the employer, references from the employer, etc.).

It should be noted that regardless of the document presented by the employee, it should be translated into Polish (the employee should provide the appropriate translation).