Guide to leaves in Poland, part 1

When an employee takes up a job for the first time in their life, in the calendar year in which they commenced the employment, they acquire entitlement to their first leave with each completed month of work, in the amount of 1/12th of the leave entitlement they will have the right to use after working for the entire year.

When calculating the leave entitlement, one does not need to round up the number of days in this situation. So: 

1. After working for a month, in the case of an employee with less than 10 years of service, the leave entitlement will be 1.666667 days, but for an employee with at least 10 years of service, the entitlement leave will be higher, namely 2.166667 days.  
2. After 3 months of work, the employee with less than 10 years of service will be entitled to 5 days of leave while the employee with at least 10 years of service will be entitled to 6.5 days.  
3. After 6 months of work, the employee with less than 10 years of service will be entitled to 10 days of leave while the employee with at least 10 years of service will be entitled to 13 days.  
4. After 8 months of work, the employee with less than 10 years of service will be entitled to 13.33333 days of leave while the employee with at least 10 years of service will be entitled to 17.33333 days.  
5. After 12 months of work, the employee with less than 10 years of service will be entitled to 20 days of leave, but an employee with more than 10 years of service will be able to use 26 days of leave.  

Good news is that the law does not prohibit rounding up the leave entitlement – the decision in this scope is made by the employer.  

We need to remember that leave entitlement depends on the so-called years of service. Below, we provide a list of the most important periods that determine the number of years of service and the leave entitlement: 

1. Educational period (it is necessary to prove graduation from school with a diploma or a certificate):   

• graduating from a higher education institution – 8 years,  

• graduating from a community college – 6 years,  

• graduating from a secondary school of general education – 4 years  

• graduating from a secondary vocational school – 5 years 

• graduating from a vocational school – 3 years  

       2. Employment under contract of employment – periods of employment at previous employers confirmed with work certificates  

       3. Employment at an additional workplace – the employee who takes up additional employment will also be entitled to the period of the previous unfinished employment, in the extent attributable before the commencement of the second employment relationship. Thus, only the part that does not overlap with the period of employment at the employer determining the leave entitlement is taken into consideration.  

Author: Kinga Miszyn – Senior Manager at the MDDP Outsourcing accounting firm in Warsaw   

Legal basis:    

- Act of 26 June 1974 – Labor Code (Polish Journal of Laws of 2023, item 1465);  

– Ordinance of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy of 8 January 1997 on detailed rules of granting of annual leave, determination and payment of remuneration for the period of leave and pecuniary compensation for leaves (Polish Journal of Laws No. 2, item 14, with amendments);  

– Ordinance of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy of 15 May 1996 on the method of justifying absence from work and granting special leaves to employees (Polish Journal of Laws of 2014, item 1632).