Labour and Social Security Journal 12/2021

The article addresses the phenomenon of human cyborgization and its potential impact on the situation of the world of work. It was inspired by the centenary of birth of Stanisław Lem, an outstanding Polish author of science fiction literature, but also a visionary of the future. First, brief comments on the definition of cyborgization and its development in various aspects are presented. Then, the authors try to highlight those issues at the interface between cyborgization and the world of work, which will require analysis in the context of labour law, such as theemployee's right to neurological improvements (and also to refuse to apply them) and the ownership of these improvements in the employer-employee relationship. Next, questions are asked whether cyborg work will not be treated as a commodity and whether the current paradigm of the capitalist economy will force the pursuit of cyborgization of the working man. Finally, the issue of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the acceleration of cyborgization processes is raised. The article contains references to the works of s-f dealing with significant problems resulting from the potential artificial "augmenting" of the human.

The article concerns the problems of implementing Directive 2019/1158, the provisions of which will have to be reflected in Polish labour regulations already in August 2022. It is not only about the obligatory extension of some leaves for the other parent, but also about introducing a new discriminatory basis and reformulating the existing provisions on parental rights. It is also worth noting that Directive 2019/1158 extends the sphere of care over dependent or temporarily dependent persons other than children.

The Author presents (in the context of considerations on the connection and distinction between of substantive labour law and procedural labour law) the proposal of the approach to the legal nature of the employee's right to appeal against the employer's acts aimed at terminating the employment relationship that is different than up to now in Polish literaturę and Polish judicature. According to the Author, this employee’s right to appeal should be perceived not as a legal phenomenon from the sphere of procedural labour law, but as a legal phenomenon from the sphere of substantive labour law, having the character of a specific meta-right (meta-entitlement). Such a categorization is important not only for ”law in books”, but also for ”law in action”, giving greater legal protection to the employee.

Employment of members of the management board of commercial law companies is part of the established practice of legal and economic turnover. It is, however, associated with a number of practical doubts which undermine the advisability of using such a formula of employment. They also include — presented in this paper — consequences of mergers of commercial law companies.

The first article presents the current draft bills on seniority pensions and assesses their solutions in terms of the types of proposed benefits and the acquisition premises in terms of consistency with the pension system. In this article, the impact of the earlier use of the benefit on its value will be analysed. Following that, the point in time when the benefits of postponing retirement will outweigh the financial benefits of the seniority pension will be determined and applied to the future life forecast. At a later stage, the impact of factors removing the effects of early retirement pension determination in the defined contribution formula, i.e. the minimum retirement pension and the possibility of multiple retirement, will be explored. The final thread will discuss the solutions proposed thus far for combining the seniority pension and work. Following the summary, an alternative to the seniority pension will be presented, with the goal of protecting people who have been exhausted by years of work. The reasoning will be carried out using a dogmatic analysis of law as well as an economic analysis of law.

The author of the article presents the latest jurisprudence of the Supreme Court relating to the premises for losing entitlement to sickness allowance. She points out that the Supreme Court, seeing the need for a pro-constitutional interpretation of Article 17 sec. 1 and Article 13 sec. 1 of sickness and maternity allowance Act, significantly liberalizes the position adopted so far.