Labour and Social Security Journal 03/2021

The study is concerned with the legal institution of taking an oath by persons entering into a labour and non-labour service relationships. This institution has a long tradition, and its source is the duty of fidelity. An oath is a conventional act of a performative nature which, for its effectiveness, must meet certain requirements regarding form and content. Although the acts of oath fulfill a functionally similar role, individual provisions unjustifiably differently define the moment when the obligation to take the oath arises and the consequences of its violation (e.g. invalidity of a legal act, dismissal from service, expiration of employment). These regulations have an impact on the procedural status of employees and functionaries of state services in connection with the assertion of possible claims.

Employee pension plans (PPE), covered under the third pillar of social security, are a voluntary form of group retirement savings. The subject of this paper are issues of institutions meant to encourage employers to establish employee pension plans. The analysis focuses on the opportunity for unilateral suspension of the payment of basic contributions, reduction of their amount and for the non-financing of obligatory contributions during a period of economic shutdown or reduced work time. With respect to the former, the paper addresses, in particular, the consequences of one-off suspension of basic contributions for a period longer than 90 days, or their reduction to an amount lower than 3.5% of salary of the PPE participant.

In case C-610/18, the CJEU formulated an autonomous definition of an employee in social security law. It ruled that the employer employing employees who are drivers of international transport, obliged to pay contributions for insurance benefits to the national social security institution, is, in the light of the provisions of Regulations 1408/2004 and 833/2004, an entity or natural person actually, and not fictitiously, employing employees actually remaining at its disposal for an indefinite period of time and its subordinates. Such an employer actually bears the relevant salary costs of the employees. He is fully entitled to control and make decisions on the termination of employment relationships with employees. On the other hand, the fact of concluding an employment contract by an entity or a person who does not meet the above criteria does not have legal consequences on the part of the employer, as it does not result in establishing an employment relationship.

The purpose of this article was not only to determine the subjective scope of the new directive on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union, but primarily to reflect on the concept of worker functioning in the EU legislation. For this purpose, the authors reviewed the occurrence of this notion in the acts of the EU legislation significant in this matter, as well as selected judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union. On this basis, the authors pointed out a number of worker's features established in the EU law, and then compared them with the premises expressed in the Polish national legislation. Moreover, the authors indicated the threat associated with different understanding of similar premises of the EU and national law.

The knowledge management is crucial for existing of modern organizations. Virtual teams were not very popular so far. Generally only IT sector was deeply involved in this method of work. New conditions of work during the lockdown change situation rapidly. Almost all organizations were forced to became virtual. One of the most important challenge in that situation was knowledge management, because of strong demand for new competencies. The are many obstacles to overcome that situation such as for example, organization culture, and luck of digital competencies. We must adopt new methods of training people and knowledge mangamanet to be more competitive in new distant reality and successfully conduct personnel policy.

Disputes and conflicts occur in all human relationships and consequently, workplace disputes are inevitable. The simplest, least expensive and, in fact, one of the most effective possible responses to the emerging conflict at work is to conduct mediation. Unlike judicial proceedings, mediation does not have a rigid procedural framework, it is more flexible and less formalized. The aim of this thesis is to show mediation as an alternative method of resolving individual disputes in the field of labour law, which should be successfully used to resolve disputes in the field of labour law. Unfortunately, mediation is often underestimated by both employees and employers, who usually take legal recourse as a method of resolving a dispute.

The Author discusses the judgment of Court of Appeal in Łódź, in which the Court interpreted "cessation of an agricultural activity" as one of the conditions of granting the right to an earlier agricultural retirement. This judgment is of particular importance due to the lack of a legal definition of this concept. In the Act on farmers' social insurance, the concept of "cessation of an agricultural activity" is explained in art. 28 section 4 for the purpose of partial suspension of an agricultural pension or disability pension, but not the right to this benefit. For this reason, according to the Author, the opinion of the Court of Appeal that the condition of granting the right to an early retirement is fulfilled when a farmer indeed ceased to conduct agricultural activity, deserves to be approved.

The study discusses the judgment of the Supreme Court on requirements (periods) entitling to obtain the right to a military old age pension in the context of an offense crime by the entitled person during service. It is problematic to include this period in this internship. This issue was related to the issue of leading principles (methods) for the interpretation of social insurance law.