“Up to 50 000 zł fine for hiring errors”
Legal employment with “Kogart HUB”

Contents

1. Legal job in Poland 2025
2. Stages of hiring a new employee
3. Employee onboarding: contract types and legal status verification
4. Legal job in Poland: employer’s obligations and checks

According to ZUS data, over a MILLION foreigners were officially working in Poland at the beginning of 2025. And, by the way, this figure is growing every year. You have to agree, this means only one thing — the market is “buzzing”! There’s a “sea” of opportunities, but plenty of risks too. Today, many companies face the consequences of poor hiring decisions. At “Kogart HUB,” we see that these are not isolated incidents, but genuinely a systemic problem. Behind every successful business lie risks, and calculation errors can cost TENS of thousands of złoty. That’s why every day, we help companies structure their employee hiring processes. Our experience and knowledge form the basis of this article. Here you will find practical tips and links to useful materials.

Are you ready to risk 50,000 zł because of a documentation error? Statistics from Poland’s National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy or PIP) for 2024 speak for themselves: over 7,000 cases of ILLEGAL EMPLOYMENT of foreigners! Are you absolutely sure that your hiring process is 100% compliant with all current regulations?

At “Kogart HUB,” we understand your concerns: fear of inspections, the complexity of procedures, or the risk of losing a key employee…

Legal job in Poland 2025

What many have been waiting for has happened: on April 11, 2025, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed two acts:

• The Act on the Labour Market and Employment Services.
• The Act on the Conditions for Admissibility of Entrusting Work to Foreigners.

Process optimization, combating fraud, and the “digitalization” of the Polish labor market! We have closely followed the preparation of this reform at various stages. You might have read about our forecasts and analyses earlier, for instance, in the article “Access to the Labour Market” and other materials on our blog.

Naturally, as we at “Kogart HUB” expected and described in detail in the article “Safe Labour Market”— control over issuing work permits is tightening.

In addition, other innovations await us, including:

• Co-financing for hiring pensioners.
• Registration of farmers at employment centers.
• Assistance for large families and single parents.
• Improved access to KFS (National Training Fund).
• Educational loans.

You can find more information on the official website gov.pl.

The government also plans to exclude Schengen visas (type C, D), issued by other countries, as grounds for legal employment. We will discuss other nuances of the reform soon on our blog pages.

Stages of hiring a new employee

Recruitment, document collection, medical check-up, contract signing, OHS (BHP) and ZUS registration… Standard hiring stages in Poland, right? However, if your candidate is a foreigner, the usual process turns into an “obstacle course.” It’s enough to incorrectly determine the visa type, miss requirements regarding the residence card (karta pobytu), or fail to obtain the necessary permit on time.

Perhaps you’ve already encountered a situation where an employee’s legal stay expired? Then you know that in this situation, the law can be strict. And this is just one of the “pitfalls” awaiting employers in Poland.

So how do you make sense of visas, residence cards, and other documents? How can you tell if a foreigner can legally work for you? To avoid relying on guesswork, we recommend reading the article “Employer’s Checklist”.

But status verification is just the beginning. The entire subsequent hiring process, from undergoing the medical examination to registering with ZUS, also has its peculiarities. Therefore, if you need a reliable plan, we have already prepared it for you. Follow the link and read: “Guide to Employment in Poland”.

Employee onboarding: contract types and legal status verification

When hiring someone in Poland, the employer must provide them with a written contract or another document outlining all the terms of employment. The future employee must receive the employment contract no later than their first working day, and preferably even before it begins.

There are two main types of contracts in Poland:

• The Employment Contract (umowa o pracę) is fully subject to the Labour Code and provides the employee with guarantees such as: paid leave, sick leave, minimum wage, protection against dismissal, and other rights. For the employer, this means more obligations and responsibilities.
• The category of Civil Law Contracts (umowy cywilnoprawne) includes the popular umowa zlecenie (contract of mandate) and umowa o dzieło (contract for a specific task). They are regulated by the Civil Code. However, the contractor has fewer rights: no paid leave, no sick pay, and ZUS contributions are calculated differently.

However, the terms offered by each employer may differ from those listed above.

Do not try to save money by “masking” employment relationships as civil law contracts. The National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) will easily detect this and reclassify the contract, leading to assessments, fines, and mandatory payments.

It might seem like choosing a suitable contract is the end of it… But hiring a foreigner is much more complicated. Much still depends on the legal status of your potential employee. One candidate might be able to work under an umowa zlecenie without issue, while another might need an additional permit for the same. Want to understand the grounds for legal stay in Poland? Read the article “From Visa to Citizenship”.

But there’s another point that can easily be forgotten – the Schengen entry stamp.

As a rule, for the legal employment of a foreigner, it is still additionally necessary to obtain a work permit, unless there is an “exemption.”

Let’s recall the several types of work permits issued in Poland. Among the most popular are:

• Declaration on entrusting work to a foreigner (Oświadczenie o powierzeniu wykonywania pracy cudzoziemcowi).
• Work permit (Zezwolenie na pracę cudzoziemca na terytorium Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej typu A).
• Notification of entrusting work to a citizen of Ukraine (Powiadomienie o podjęciu pracy przez obywatela Ukrainy).

Oświadczenie? Zezwolenie? Or perhaps Powiadomienie? And do you know who actually does NOT need to obtain this document? Read more about this in the article “Access to the Labour Market”.

A separate story is hiring a board member (członek zarządu). In most cases, you will need to obtain a special type B work permit. And we know firsthand that obtaining it is no easy task. That’s precisely why we have prepared special material on this topic: “Zezwolenie type B”.

Legal job in Poland: employer’s obligations and checks

Contract signed? Wonderful! But being a responsible employer means more than just a signature on documents. You’d agree that this signature implies: safe working conditions, timely paid taxes and ZUS contributions, proper record-keeping, and confidence in the future.

But it’s not just you checking the candidate; they are also gathering information about you and your company. Before accepting a legal job offer, applicants might check publicly available information, for example:

• Is your company actually registered?
• Doesn’t the job opening or the company itself look suspicious?
• Isn’t your company undergoing liquidation?

We advise ensuring that data about your business in public registers (KRS, CEIDG, etc.) do not raise such questions. Want to know how potential candidates might check you (the employer) in Poland? We covered this in detail in the article “Safe Employment”.

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Building a professional team is just the beginning of a successful business in Poland. The overall picture is usually composed of many factors: a far-sighted strategy, reliable legal support, and a competent approach to taxes and accounting. Therefore, if you are ready to look at your business holistically, then in this section you will find other interesting materials on this topic.

We at “Kogart HUB” know from experience: trying to figure out all the nuances alone means wasting precious time and inevitably encountering problems. Especially now, when the rules of the game are constantly changing. Therefore, subscribe to our blog to be among the first to learn about innovations and new opportunities!