The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy is one of the most active ministries. The government's legislative work list includes 36 projects submitted by this Ministry. Many of the proposed solutions have already been adopted by the Council of Ministers, 6 acts have passed the legislative path of the Polish Parliament and obtained the President's signature, and work on the others is ongoing.

The ministry's flagship ‘Active Parent’ programme started on 1 October this year and is already supporting parents in combining work and family life. Social workers can count on a PLN 1,000 supplement to their salary. We have extended the protection of employees against reprotoxic substances.

There is a lot going on, and even more is about to happen. These include a widow's pension, longer leave for parents of preterm babies, reform of the employment offices or an increase in benefits from the Alimony Fund. On top of this, there will be e.g., changes to the calculation of seniority or honorary benefits for centenarians.

We are not slowing down and are working on further solutions that will benefit Poles. We are responding to emergency situations, the best example of which was our action during the floods that recently hit Poland.

Would you like to know more? Please read on.

Widow's pension

The death of a spouse is a huge emotional and often financial blow. This is especially true for women, who statistically live longer and are left alone with house or flat payments after a loss. And these do not decrease by half.

The introduction of a widow's pension will mean that a widowed person will be able to keep his or her benefit and increase it by part of the survivor's pension of the deceased spouse or collect the survivor's pension of the deceased spouse plus part of his or her pension.

The Act was signed by the President on 9 August 2024 and will enter into force on 1 January 2025. Payment of benefits will start on 1 July 2025.

Active Parent

The Active Parent programme supports parents in combining work and family life. It consists of three benefits:

• Active Parents at Work: aimed at professionally active parents of children aged 12 - 35 months for subsidised childcare by, for example, a nanny, grandmother, uncle or grandfather (up to PLN 1,500 for a healthy child and up to PLN 1,900 for a child with a disability);
• Actively in the crèche: aimed at parents of children under 3 years of age attending care institutions (up to PLN 1,500 for a healthy child and up to PLN 1,900 for a child with disabilities);
• Actively at home: aimed at parents of children aged between 12 - 35 months who are not economically active or do not use a care institution. The benefit will be paid in the amount of PLN 500 per month for 24 months.

Collection of applications for this programme started on 1 October this year, and by 8 October 270,023 applications for 274,456 children had been received. Benefits will be paid after a maximum of 2 months from the submission of the application - with compensation as of October.

An effective response to the floods

In recent weeks, the whole of Poland held its breath as the southern part of our country came face to face with the natural disaster. Once the threat to the health and lives of the inhabitants had passed, the next step was to deal with the effects of a flood. We quickly started work on a flood special act, which was already signed by the President on 3 October this year.

The special act includes e.g., an additional 20 days of 100% paid leave to deal with the effects of the flood, an increase in leave on demand for another 8 days and the possibility to take leave on an hourly basis. Employers will also receive support. If their workplace has been destroyed, they can count on e.g., reimbursement of the costs of maintaining current workplaces, cancellation of previous refunds for equipment or retrofitting of workplaces or refunds for employing the unemployed. In addition, social workers working in the field will receive a one-off allowance of PLN 2,000.

In an emergency situation, we rarely have a head for the bureaucracy, which is why it was important from the outset that those affected by the floods should receive help efficiently and quickly. That is why we recommended simplifying the application procedure for emergency aid. Everything is working on a ‘one-stop shop’ basis.

First of all, it is:

• PLN 10 thousand for emergency aid (non-refundable) - including PLN 8 thousand social assistance and up to PLN 2 thousand flood allowance,
• PLN 200 thousand for the reconstruction of flats/houses,
• PLN 100 thousand for renovation of outbuildings.

Protection of whistleblowers

The Act will protect whistleblowers, regardless of the basis or form of their work or service. It requires employers to develop an internal whistleblowing procedure that will set out the rules for receiving such reports. Thanks to this Act, whistleblowers who have experienced retaliatory measures by the company/other workers will be able to claim redress or compensation.

The Act will come into force on 25 September 2025. It is an implementation of the Directive of the European Parliament and the EU Council, which should be introduced by EU member states in 2021. The absence of this act costs the Polish taxpayer a lump sum of €7 million and €40,000 per day of additional penalties.

Allowances for social and foster care workers

Thanks to the activities of the Ministry of Labour, starting from 1 July this year, allowances of PLN 1,000 per month were granted to social workers, employees of the foster care system (including those running family children's homes and professional foster families), as well as employees of childcare institutions for children up to the age of three, run by local governments.

This is, on the one hand, an appreciation of their daily work, which has not been properly remunerated so far, and on the other, an increase in prestige and interest in performing such important social functions.

Protection against reprotoxic substances

Reprotoxic substances can have adverse effects on sexual function and fertility in adult men and women, as well as on the development of offspring. Amendments to the Labour Code, which aim to protect the health of male and female workers even more effectively, came into force on 22 June this year.

We have expanded the catalogue of carcinogenic and mutagenic substances and enabled the issuing of a Regulation of the Minister of Health on chemicals, their mixtures, agents or technological processes with carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic effects in the working environment. This increases the protection of several hundred thousand workers.