The Act signed by President Andrzej Duda introduces a definition of remote work consisting in performing work entirely or partially in a place indicated by an employee, including an employee’s address of residence, and from time to time agreed with an employer. It also defines the rules for its performance.

The regulations provide for both total and hybrid remote work, i.e. performed partially at home and partially in the company, in accordance with the needs of a specific employee and employer. It may be agreed both when concluding an employment contract, and later, already during employment. It will also be possible to return to traditional work at any time – indicates the Minister of Family and Social Policy Marlena Maląg.

Who is remote work for?

According to the new regulations, an employer will have to take into account an application for remote work submitted by:

• employee-parent of a child, inter alia, holding a disability certificate or a moderate or severe disability certificate,
• pregnant female employee,
• employee raising a child under 4 years of age,
• employee taking care of another member of the immediate family or another person living in the same household who holds a disability or severe disability certificate.

Refusal will be possible only if, due to the work type or arrangement, it will not be possible to perform it remotely.

Occasional remote work

Occasional remote work will be provided upon employee’s request (non-binding, an employer will have the right to refuse to take it into account) for 24 days in a calendar year. In view of its special nature, some regulations on remote work (e.g. an obligation to provide materials and tools for work) will not apply.

Employees’ sobriety check

The Labour Code will contain a ban on admitting to work an employee who is intoxicated or under the influence of the so-called drugs.

An employee’s intoxication can be determined in two ways:

• in the event of a reasonable suspicion that an employee either came to work under the influence of alcohol or drank alcohol at work (e.g. they are staggering) – the sobriety check can be carried out by the police (this applies to all employees),
• in the case of employee categories specified in the internal company regulations, an employer will have the right to carry out an independent, preventive sobriety check even if an employee does not show any signs of being under the influence of alcohol.

Similar rules will be used to check whether an employee is under the influence of drugs.

Independent, preventive employees’ sobriety check by an employer

An employer will have the right to cover with sobriety checks carried out independently only those employees whose work poses a threat to the life and health of employees or other persons or to property (any, not only an employer’s property).

This will be a preventive check, i.e. the one that will be carried out, as a rule, towards employees not showing signs of intoxication. It may also be carried out it independently by an employer where employees covered by this check show signs of intoxication.

Upon request of an employer or employee, the police may be called to carry out a sobriety check of an employee.

The introduction of sobriety checks, groups of employees covered by such checks and the manner of carrying out such checks will be determined by an employer in an internal company act, e.g. work regulations or announcement.

Similar rules of conduct will apply in the case of carrying out a check for the presence of substances similar to alcohol (drugs) in the bodies of employees.