Labour law Carer’s leave and leave of absence for reasons of force majeure:Practical aspects one year after the introduction of the work-life balance directive

In April 2024, a year passed since the supplementation of the work-life balance directive to the Polish Labour Code Act of 26 June 1974 (i.e. Journal of Laws of 2023, item 1465; hereinafter: ,,Labour Code”). One of the key elements of the changes to the labour legislation was the introduction of carer’s leave and force majeure leave. It is therefore worth summarising how these regulations function in practice and what are the most common doubts of employers related to their application.

Carer’s leave – what should we know?

Carer’s leave is an entitlement for employees that allows them to take up to five days off per calendar year to provide personal care or support to a family member or person living in the same household who requires care or support for serious health reasons.

Carer’s leave can be taken by all employees with an employment contract. It is granted irrespective of length of service, type of contract or full-time equivalent.

It is worth noting that carer’s leave is unpaid, and its duration is not deducted from the employee’s pool of annual leave days. The period spent on carer’s leave counts as part of the period of employment.

What about leave of absence due to force majeure?

According to Article 148 of the Polish Labour Code, an employee is entitled to force majeure leave for urgent family matters caused by illness or accident if the employee’s immediate presence is necessary. The dimension of the leave is 2 days or 16 hours, for which the employee receives 50% of the salary.

Can an employer refuse to grant carer’s leave and force majeure leave?

Due to the fact that the occurrence of force majeure is unpredictable, the Polish legislator has regulated the principle in the legislation that an employee may report the need to take leave due to force majeure even on the day such leave is taken, and the employer is obliged to grant it.

When it comes to the granting of carer’s leave, the Polish legislator places stricter requirements on the employee – the application for it should be made no less than 1 day before the start of the leave and should indicate:

• the name of the person who requires the employee’s care or support,
• the reason for the need for personal care or support,
• in the case of a family member, a demonstration of the degree of relationship to the employee,
• in the case of a person who is not a family member, an indication of the address of residence of that person.

Although in the case of carer’s leave, the prerequisites for entitlement are much more numerous than in the case of force majeure, because the circle of family members is narrowed by the Polish legislator and the need for care or support must be due to serious medical reasons, in practice – given the lack of definition of these concepts in the Polish Labour Code and the lack of power of the employer to request documentation confirming the state of health of the persons requiring support or care, the submission of a complete application by the employee with compliance with the statutory deadline makes it impossible for the employer to refuse the employee to grant days off work.

Prerequisites for carer’s leave not so easy to verify

Wie bereits erwähnt, ist es für den Arbeitgeber zu einer großen Herausforderung geworden, die Voraussetzungen für einen Pflegeurlaub zu prüfen, d. h. den Grad der Verwandtschaft und den Gesundheitszustand des Familienangehörigen oder Lebenspartners, der die Inanspruchnahme eines solchen Urlaubs durch den Arbeitnehmer rechtfertigt.

Kann der Arbeitgeber trotz der fehlenden Befugnis des Arbeitgebers, die Vorlage von Unterlagen zu verlangen, die den Anspruch des Arbeitnehmers auf Pflegeurlaub bestätigen, die Vorlage dieser Unterlagen verlangen, und sei es nur zur Einsichtnahme?

Denn allein die Aufnahme von Daten in den Antrag auf Pflegeurlaub, die sich unmittelbar aus dem polnischen Arbeitsgesetzbuch ergeben (Name der pflegebedürftigen Person, Verwandtschaftsgrad zum Arbeitnehmer oder Anschrift), erfordert die Verarbeitung personenbezogener Daten Dritter durch den Arbeitgeber.

Es sei darauf hingewiesen, dass die Einwilligung der Person, deren Daten verarbeitet werden sollen, für die Verarbeitung dieser Daten durch den Arbeitgeber nicht erforderlich ist, was sich unmittelbar aus Artikel 6 Absatz 1 Buchstabe C und Artikel 9 Absatz 2 Buchstabe B der Verordnung (EU) 2016/679 des Europäischen Parlaments und des Rates vom 27. April 2016 zum Schutz natürlicher Personen bei der Verarbeitung personenbezogener Daten, zum freien Datenverkehr und zur Aufhebung der Richtlinie 95/46/EG (Datenschutz-Grundverordnung; ABl. EU. L. von 2016. Nr. 119, S. 1 in der geänderten Fassung; im Folgenden: ,,DSGVO“).

Nach Artikel 5 Absatz 1 Buchstabe C der DSGVO ist die Verarbeitung personenbezogener Daten auf das erforderliche Mindestmaß zu beschränken und muss dem Zweck angemessen sein, für den sie verarbeitet werden. Aus diesen Bestimmungen ergibt sich indirekt, dass der Arbeitgeber nicht berechtigt ist, vom Arbeitnehmer – auch nicht zur Einsichtnahme – Unterlagen zu verlangen, die den schweren Gesundheitszustand eines Familienmitglieds oder Lebenspartners belegen.

Der Arbeitgeber sollte sich darauf beschränken, nur eine Anfrage zu akzeptieren, deren Inhalt die im Arbeitsgesetzbuch aufgeführten Daten enthält.

Leave of absence due to force majeure – documents that the employer may require

It should be noted that neither the Polish Labour Code nor the Regulation of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy of 15 May 1996 on the manner of justifying absences from work and granting exemptions from work to employees (i.e. Journal of Laws of 2014, item 1632) contains a catalogue of documents that may be requested by the employer for the purpose of granting an employee exemption from work due to force majeure.

Therefore, it should be assumed that the request for exemption should be limited only to the minimum data that will allow the employer to verify who the request concerns and for what reason the exemption should be granted. Such data may include:

• the name of the employee,
• the justification of the circumstances involved, without describing them in detail (i.e. force majeure, urgent family matters caused by illness and accident, the need for the employee’s immediate presence).

Summary

One year after the work-life balance directive came into force, the changes in Polish labour law can be positively assessed in practice. The introduction of carer’s leave and force majeure leave is an expression of care for emergencies that may occur in an employee’s life.

However, employers should bear in mind that the law significantly restricts them when it comes to the processing of employees’ personal data, and abuse of the law, can lead to far-reaching legal consequences.