Labour and Social Security Journal 01/2025

The Whistleblower Protection Act, which recently came into force, lists temporary workers among the people who can report a violation of the law and obtain whistleblower status. However, the threeparties formula of temporary employment, raises numerous doubts regarding the status of a temporary employee as a whistleblower. This article is an attempt to clarify these doubts, especially in terms of indicating in which of the entities involved in the temporary employment relationship may obtain the status of a whistleblower, what is the subjective and objective scope of protection he is entitled to in this respect, and which of the entities involved in the temporary employment relationship is liable for violating the prohibition of taking retaliatory actions against a whistleblower.

The aim of the article is to verify the hypothesis that the institution of reinstatement to police service is a very important element of administrative and legal protection of all police officers in Poland. The service relationship, within the framework of which a police officer performs the activities entrusted to him by the state, is an administrative and legal relationship, the characteristic feature of which is the establishment by the legislator of a catalogue of reasons justifying the dismissal of a police officer from service. Reinstatement to service, on the other hand, is an institution that allows a dismissed police officer, in cases specified by the legislator, to return to service in the Police. This publication analyzes reinstatement to service and activities related to it, in particular the police officer's notification of readiness to take up service, determining the police officer's fitness to serve in the Police and issuing a personal order to appoint a police officer to the position. The work also determines the impact of reinstatement to service on the content of the police officer's service relationship, which is of significant importance from the point of view of the officer's rights. The analysis conducted allowed for the confirmation of the research hypothesis stated at the beginning. Reinstatement to police service is a very important manifestation of administrative and legal protection of all police officers in Poland. This institution constitutes an expression of their protection against the negative consequences resulting from dismissal from police service.

The subject of the article is to present the procedural aspects of issuing orders and prohibitions by the authorities of the National Labour Inspectorate. Their regulation contains provisions of a lex specialis nature in relation to the norms of the Code of Administrative Procedure, on such important issues as, inter alia, the constituent elements of administrative decisions and the course of appeal proceedings. Deviations from the code regulation reduce the standard of protection of the administered. Their analysis allowed the author to formulate de lege ferenda conclusions.

The subject of the study is the issue of obtaining and using employees' personal data by a trade union for the purposes of organizing a strike referendum. The article analyzes the legal basis and the scope of permissible processing of personal data for such purpose. In addition, the issue of the scope of the employer's obligation to provide information for the purposes of organising a strike referendum is considered.

The paper outlines the possibility of protecting workers' rights under the existing Alien Tort Statute (ATS) in US federal law. The background to the comments on the ATS is the Nestle, Inc. v. Doe decision in 2021, which has been described as "closing the window of hope" that had been attached to the possibility of bringing claims against transnational corporations for failing to respect fundamental rights at work. Undoubtedly, the ruling itself was a major disappointment for many human rights and labour rights campaigners and activists. However, the judgment (mainly because of its complex reasoning and dissenting opinions) has provoked a reaction in the form of proposals for new legislative solutions, and it is possible that it will become the seed from which a new, useful tool for the realisation of human rights at work will grow. The paper addresses the question of which work-related rules can be considered part of 'customary international law'.

The subject of the article is the analysis of court decisions referring to the concept of "cooperating person" expressed in art. 8 sec. 11 of the Act of 13 October 1998 on the social insurance system. Elements of the definition of "cooperating person" contain unspecified phrases such as: "remaining in a common household" and "cooperation in conducting business". This requires the courts to make findings regarding the factual circumstances of the case being considered and then to make subsumption, which leads either to the application of art. 8 sec. 1, 2, 11 in connection with art. 6 sec. 1 item 4 or 5 of the Act on the social insurance system, and thus to the coverage of individual persons with mandatory retirement and disability insurance or to the refusal to apply the above-mentioned norms. This work is a review article, the main purpose of which is to determine what elements of the factual situation are taken into account during the explanatory proceedings conducted by courts adjudicating in cases, the subject of which is to decide whether a given person meets the requirements included in the definition of a "cooperating person" in accordance with art. 8 sec. 11 of the Act on the Social Insurance System, and the evolution of the definition of a cooperating person was discussed as part of the introductory issues.

The author refers to the recent position of the Supreme Court regarding the legitimate, from the point of view of justification and concreteness, reasons for terminating the working conditions and remuneration of a mana gerial employee in order to transfer his position to another person.

As required by European law, Member States are obliged to ensure that pregnant workers have the right to effective judicial protection. The Court of Justice of the EU recently dealt with national standards of protection of pregnant workers in the context of the principle of effectiveness in the judgment of 27 June 2024 in case C-284/23, TC vs. Firma Haus Jacobus Alten- und Altenpflege-heim gGmbH. The CJEU's interpretation provides valuable guidance on the assessment of the compatibility with European law of legal remedies available to a worker who became aware of her pregnancy after the expiry of the time limit for bringing an action challenging her dismissal. The aim of the study is to present the main theses of the CJEU judgment in the Haus Jacobus case and relevant Polish legal regulations in the context of the principle of effectiveness.