Implementation of Article 21 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 into Polish Law: Commencement and Interruption of the Limitation Period for Claims Arising from Unequal Treatment in Pay and the Protection of Employees

The purpose of this article is to analyse the limitation pe­riod applicable to claims arising from unequal pay treat­ment in the context of the implementation of Article 21 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 into Polish law. The authors demonstrate that the draft Act of 12 December 2025 (UC 127) implements the Directive only fragmentarily, omitting a statutory determination of the commencement of the limitation period linked to the employee’s acquisition of knowledge of the infringement. This omission weakens the practical ability to pursue claims arising from pay discrim­ination. In light of this legislative gap, which has thus far been addressed only in a limited number of judgments of the Polish Supreme Court, the authors argue that linking the commencement of the limitation period to the moment when the employee becomes aware of the discrimination is essential to ensuring the effective protection against une­qual pay treatment. Drawing on the Directive, the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and selected comparative foreign solutions, the article for­mulates implementation proposals aimed at ensuring the full and coherent transposition of Article 21 into Polish law.

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