The Ministry of Labour and Technology Development has completed work on the assumptions on which the new Act on the Employment of Foreigners will be based/.
The changes are to come into force at the beginning of 2022.
In the next few years the demand for foreigners’ work will continue to grow by several or over a dozen per-cent annually.
The Polish legal system defining the rules of foreigners’ access to the labour market, although assessed as one of the simplest and most effective in the EU in terms of attracting economic migrants, requires changes because in recent years it has ceased to meet the challenges of the modern labour market”.
The Ministry of Labour and Technology Development has completed work on the assumptions on which the new Act on the Employment of Foreigners will be based.
The purpose of the new act is, among others, to:
– increase the participation of highly qualified employees in the labour market,
– improve the efficiency and speed of procedures for issuing work permits,
– implement a safe, clear and electronic system for handling processes legalizing the employment of foreigners, allowing the state to access full information on foreigners taking up employment in Poland and reducing emerging abuses.
The changes in the field of “classic” work permits are also anticipated, i.e.
– transferring the competence of the authority to issue these permits to the poviat level, and
– granting the voivode the competence of the appeal body in matters decided by poviat authorities.
It is planned that the proposed act will enter into force on 1 January 2022 with an additional period of ap-proximately two years to adapt the IT systems.
In terms of entrusting seasonal work to foreigners, it is planned, inter alia, to introduce full electronization of procedures related to obtaining a seasonal work permit and to discontinue the procedure for granting a seasonal work permit in cases where the foreigner did not report to the employer.
Such discontinuance will take place automatically and will be recorded in the ICT system. The system will also automatically monitor the failure to conclude an employment contract between an employer and a for-eigner or to pay social security contributions from it.
It is also considered to limit the institution to give permits for a seasonal work only to those foreigners who enter the territory of the Republic of Poland for seasonal work, i.e. the so-called “directive foreigners”.
