Three little-known but important employer responsibilities

Little-known employer responsibilities

The employer must provide the employee with a number of benefits - the employee must be trained in health and safety, must not be discriminated against, and the results of his work should be assessed objectively and adjusted to it. These are just a few of the employer's numerous obligations, which are also widespread in the labor market. Many employers are not aware of the existence of a few (maybe a bit exotic) but still statutory obligations. These include the right to celebrate, to diversify work and leave for students. Find out about these unpopular employer responsibilities!

1. Allowing celebration

Sundays and public holidays are public holidays, they are not new. However, it may be puzzling that the statutory "calendar" covers only Catholic Church holidays, and yet almost 5%, or almost 2 million Poles, declare other religions (according to CBOS statistics from November 2011). How does Polish law relate to working followers of other religions?

Every employee has the right to celebrate their own religious holiday. This is ensured by the Act on Guarantees of Freedom of Conscience and Religion (Art. 42), adopted by the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland in 1989 and upheld by the Polish Constitution eight years later. It is worth noting that the above-mentioned right can only be used by members of those religious groups that have the status of a church or religious association - their register is kept by the minister of the interior and administration.

An employee who celebrates religious holidays on dates other than those specified in the Act on public holidays (Article 1) must submit an application to the employer no later than 7 days before the planned dismissal. In a situation where the employee works on Catholic holidays (not coinciding with his religion holidays), he receives normal remuneration without allowances. For working off his holiday, he is not entitled to additional remuneration for public holidays or overtime work.

The obligations of the employer also include informing the subordinate about the possibility and conditions of making up for the dismissal no later than 3 days before the planned dismissal. If the employee's application is justified (his religion is in the register of the minister of internal affairs) and the procedures are correct, the employer has no right to refuse the employee a dismissal.

2. Diversifying work

Pursuant to Art. 94 sec. 2a, through the appropriate organization of time and resources, the employer is particularly obliged to reduce the nuisance of monotonous work. This means that employees of production lines meeting all the criteria of monotonous work and at a predetermined pace should be under special care. The inclusion of music, periodic changes to the decor (posters), equipment (plastic coffee cups of a different color) and / or workwear are almost mandatory.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to determine what is still monotonous and what is already varied, and the costs of changing, for example, the color of workwear in production industries effectively discourage. So there are small but expressive pieces of equipment and intangible assets - music and (nice) smells.

3. Supporting the improvement of qualifications

An employer hiring last-year students must take into account the 21-day training leave they are entitled to (Art. 103 of the Labor Code)! It is to enable the student to prepare a diploma thesis and take the diploma examination. Employees wishing to take the examination confirming or improving their qualifications (high school or extramural) are also entitled to a training leave of 6 days. In both cases, the leave is granted on days that are working for the employee.

In addition, the employer is obliged to pay remuneration for the time spent on training and commuting to training. It can also pay for them. If further cooperation with an employee is planned, a written contract is required, setting out mutual rights and obligations in the period of improving qualifications (Art. 103 (3) of the Labor Code).