Labour and Social Security Journal 05/2023

The right to equal treatment for equal performance of the same duties and the prohibition of discrimination in employment constitute fundamental principles of employment law. The legislator has defined them in a straightforward manner. However, the consequences of their violation have been defined rather vaguely. The Supreme Court jurisprudence and representatives of the literature interpret the impact of Article 18 § 3 of the Labour Code and Article 183d of the Labour Code in a different way. Moreover, it remains unclear to what extent it is permissible to draw on the rules of liability set out in the Civil Code. The legal nature of liability itself is also contentious – the views of legal academics operating in the field of labour law point to its public law nature. Indicated doubts inspire to undertake stabilising measures, with the primary objective being to find a model that reconciles opposing views.

This article investigates the possibility of applying the protective rules of jurisdiction set out in Section 5 of Chapter II of Regulation No. 1215/2012 titled "Jurisdiction over individual employment contracts", in disputes between an employee and the parent company, despite the fact that the parties are not directly bounded by employment contract. Based on the analysis of the case law of the CJEU, the author argues that the protective rules of jurisdiction can be invoked even if there is no formal agreement between the parties to the dispute, howewer there is a relationship of subordination between them. The author positively assesses the search for an actual employer, however she criticizes the interpretation of the employment contract within the meaning of Regulation 1215/2012 based solely on subordination. 

The article is devoted to the forms of assistance for the unemployed and job seekers that have been provided for in the draft law on professional activity, which is to replace the Employment Promotion and Labor Market Institutions Act of April 20, 2004, which has been in effect for almost twenty years. The author analyzes and attempts to evaluate the proposed solutions in the area of forms of assistance intended to replace labor market services and instruments, noting the extent of the changes and confronting them with the existing legal regulations.

The subject of this paper is the suspension of indexation of judges' remuneration, which is granted by virtue of law based on the law on organization of common courts. Judges are the only professional group in Poland whose right to fair remuneration is directly protected in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, as one of the guarantees of judicial independence. Rules for remunerating judges were changed by the legislator three times in budget-related acts adopted in the years 2020–2022, which modified the general principles provided for in the Constitutional Act. The indicated above three-year legislative practice led to the creation of a mechanism for shaping salaries based on the discretion of the executive and legislative authorities, detached from objective factors. The aim of this paper is to answer the question whether the indicated mechanisms are constitutional and whether judges may have a claim to equalize remuneration to the level specified in the provisions of the constitutional laws despite the budgetary laws in force.

The main purpose of the paper is to present the risks associated with the use of consent as a basis for the processing of personal data of an employee (applicant) in the context of the asymmetrical relationship between the parties to an employment relationship, also from the perspective of possible consequences for the employee. The paper indicates that the absence of a definition of consent in the Labour Code as well as an explicit indication that it can be used exceptionally as a basis for the processing of personal means that these provisions do not perform the protective function of labour law.

The main purpose of this study is to establish the status of a bailiff assessor while performing the function of a deputy bailiff in the labour law. The research spectrum revolves around the search for an answer to the question of whether a deputy bailiff-assessor, appointed under Article 43(1) of the Bailiffs Act, retains the status of an employee, since he acquires the status of a public authority in the performance of professional duties reserved for the bailiffs. No provision of the Bailiffs Act gives a clear answer to problematic questions. which is why the author makes interdisciplinary considerations. He exegeses the provisions of the Bailiffs Act and the Labour Code in the field of the characteristics of the employment relationship using the formal-dogmatic method.

The author presents the previous jurisprudence of the Supreme Court regarding the issue of including periods of work in a Member State of the European Union as a period of work in special conditions or of a special nature for the purpose of acquiring the right to bridging old-age pension under the provisions of national (Polish) law. She presents the last judgment of the Supreme Court, in which the previous interpretation of the law in this regard was abandoned. In the judgment was assumed, that the lack of a pension system in another Member State equalizing the legal situation of a person performing work in special conditions and granting special pension rights on this account is not an obstacle in qualifying work performed abroad as work in special conditions. Therefore, if the period of work abroad in a Member State of the European Union meets the conditions set out in Annex 1 to the Act on the Bridging old-age Pension, it is included in the period of work in special conditions referred to in Art. 4 point 6 of the Act.

The subject of the study is a discussion of the arguments cited by the German federal labor court (BAG) in the judgment of December 1 st 2020, 9 AZR 102/20, to justify the thesis that an incentive system can be considered an instrument of the employer's management confirming the existence of an employment relationship, in the light of the statements of the German speaking literature, and an assessment of the impact of this judgment on the qualification of the legal status of persons working through the online crowdworkers platform.

On December 1–2, 2022 on the TEAMS platform, the 5nd National Scientific Conference of the "Non-typical employment relations" series was held on the subject of "The use of atypical forms of employment in violation of labor law and social security law – diagnosis and prospects for the future". The conference was organized by the Centre of Atypical Employment Relationships and Student Forum of Atypical Employment Relationships, operating at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lodz and the District Labour Inspectorate in Lodz. This conference was held under the honorary patronage of: Rector of the University of Lodz, Chief National Labour Inspectorate, President of the Social Insurance Institution and social partners – the LEWIATAN Confederation and the OPZZ Trade Union Confederation.