The reform, which took effect on July 8, gave the State Labor Inspectorate (PIP) greater powers to challenge civil-law and business-to-business (B2B) contracts used in place of regular employment contracts.
Inspectors say they have completed 35 proceedings and issued more than 120 written instructions requiring employers to establish employment under regular employment contracts after finding that civil-law arrangements had been used improperly.
The inspectorate also received 690 complaints and requests concerning the use of civil-law contracts between July 8 and August 13.
The number of such complaints has risen sharply this year. The inspectorate received 1,794 between January 1 and August 13, compared with 619 during the same period in 2025.
Most concerned contracts of mandate, a common form of civil-law agreement in Poland under which a person provides services without the full protections of an employment contract.
Complaints have come from people working in services, retail and manufacturing, as well as healthcare, nationwide restaurant chains, platform-based businesses and the security industry.
Chief Labour Inspector Janusz Krasoń said many complaints concern employment that ended before the reform took effect and therefore cannot be handled under the new rules.
Some complaints also lack information needed for the inspectorate to proceed.
The reform did not change the legal definition of an employment relationship.
It gave inspectors greater powers to act when a civil-law or B2B contract is used for work that, under Poland's labor code, should be performed under an employment contract.
Employers have also been voluntarily changing contracts.
Between July 8 and August 6, inspectors were informed of more than 200 cases in which an existing civil-law agreement had been converted into an employment contract before inspectors completed detailed findings or took formal legal action.
Krasoń said this showed that employers were correcting improperly chosen forms of employment without inspectors having to take legal action.
Under the new procedure, inspectors first order an employer to correct an irregularity. If the order is ignored, an inspector can ask a district labor inspector to issue an administrative decision converting the arrangement into an employment contract.
Neither employers nor workers have so far faced such administrative decisions in the cases covered by the inspections.
Both sides can appeal a conversion decision to a labor court within 30 days.
A decision converting a civil-law contract into an employment contract can take immediate effect pending an appeal only if it concerns a worker with special protection against dismissal, such as a pregnant woman.
Employers can also ask the State Labor Inspectorate for an individual interpretation of whether a particular employment arrangement complies with the law.
Since July 8, the chief labor inspector has issued seven such interpretations.
In two cases, the inspectorate agreed that civil-law arrangements were appropriate.
In five, it found that the circumstances described amounted to an employment relationship.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR/PAP