Background information

The aim of the measure is to guarantee that wages for employees from insolvent companies will be timely paid. The fund is established and workers are eligible for alternative compensation from the fund.

Legal references:

1. Act of 13 July 2006 concerning the protection of workers' claims in the event of the insolvency of their employer.

2. Act of 31 March 2020 amending the Act on special solutions related to the prevention, prevention and eradication of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them, as well as certain other acts.

Content of measure

The fund covers all claims stemming from the employment relationship or its termination that have not been paid to the employee due to the employer's insolvency or economically difficult situation. These costs include work income, compensation for non-worked hours that arose and are not due to the employee, sickness and holiday payments, severance payments, and retirement payments that arose up to three months before the start of the insolvency procedure or the end of the employment relationship (as long as this did not happen more than nine months before the insolvency). The total monthly payment from the fund cannot exceed (including for example severance pay or sickness pay) the employee's average salary from the previous quarter.

The Fund is managed by ZUS (Social Insurance Institution). The fund is mainly financed by employers’ contributions (0.1% of monthly pay for each employee), supplemented by debt collection, recovery of funds from employers and other sources, donations, voluntary payments of employers or subsidies.

All employees who are in an employment relationship are eligible except those who are close relatives of the entrepreneur and members of his/her extended family. There is no minimum duration of the employment relationship in order for employees to become eligible. Co-financing shall not apply to the remuneration of employees whose remuneration received in the month preceding the month in which the application was submitted was higher than 300% of the average monthly salary.

Use of measure

In 2018, benefits were paid to 13,568 employees for a total of PLN 114,750,000 (€26, 079 545) (Ministry of Labour, 2019). This is visibly less than in 2017 when such benefits were paid to 15,669 employees for a total PLN 124,611,000 (€29,669 286) (Ministry of Labour, 2018). In previous years, the number of beneficiaries was 15,764 (2016) and 18,966 (2015). No more recent data was found.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	Companies National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 13 July 2006: Act of 13 July 2006 concerning the protection of workers' claims in the event of the insolvency of their employer (in Polish) (isap.sejm.gov.pl)
• 01 January 2007: Sargant, M. (2007), Implementation Report Directive 2002/74/EC on the protection of employees in the event of employer insolvency, European Commission (ec.europa.eu)
• 31 March 2020: Act of 31 March 2020 amending the Act on special solutions related to the prevention, prevention and eradication of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them, as well as certain other acts (isap.sejm.gov.pl)
• 18 June 2021: ERM database on restructuring related legislation (www.eurofound.europa.eu)
• 17 August 2022: Act of 5 August 2022 on amending the Act on special solutions for counteracting support for aggression against Ukraine and serving to protect national security and the Act on the National Fiscal Administration (isap.sejm.gov.pl)