Collective dismissal – notification and consultation rules

A Warsaw-based technology company with 120 employees decides to restructure its product division. Thirty-two positions will be eliminated over six weeks. The HR director assumes this is a straightforward redundancy exercise. It is not. Polish law imposes a distinct statutory regime for collective dismissals – one that requires advance notification of two public authorities, a formal consultation process with employee representatives, and mandatory waiting periods before any termination letter can be issued.

Under Polish employment legislation, a collective dismissal occurs when an employer with at least 20 employees terminates contracts for economic reasons within 30 days, reaching defined numerical thresholds: 10 employees where the workforce is below 100, 10 percent where the workforce is between 100 and 299, or 30 employees where the workforce is 300 or more. The procedure requires written notification to both the District Labour Office (Powiatowy Urząd Pracy, PUP) and the relevant trade union or employee representatives before any dismissals take effect. Failure to follow the procedure exposes the employer to claims of unlawful termination and reinstatement orders.

This guide walks through the full collective dismissal procedure step by step: threshold calculation, consultation obligations, PUP notification timing, the mandatory 30-day standstill, severance entitlements, and the most common errors that result in litigation. Three business scenarios – a manufacturing plant in Silesia, an IT company in Mazowieckie, and a foreign-owned subsidiary in Lower Silesia – illustrate how the rules apply in practice.

When does the collective dismissal regime apply?

The first question employers must answer is whether the dismissal qualifies as collective at all. Polish labour law sets the threshold not by headcount alone but by a combination of workforce size and the number of dismissals within a rolling 30-day window. An employer with 80 employees who terminates 10 contracts for economic reasons crosses the threshold. An employer with 350 employees who terminates 29 does not – even though the absolute number is higher.

The 30-day window is critical and often misunderstood. Employers sometimes stagger dismissals across calendar months believing this avoids the regime. It does not. The window is rolling, not calendar-based. If 10 qualifying terminations occur between day 1 and day 30 of any period, the collective dismissal rules apply retroactively to all of them. The National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy, PIP) treats deliberate staggering as circumvention and may impose sanctions.

Qualifying terminations include employer-initiated contract terminations for economic, organisational, or technological reasons. They also include mutual termination agreements (porozumienie stron) where the employer's economic reasons are the operative cause – provided at least five such agreements are concluded within the same 30-day window. Dismissals for employee-related reasons, such as misconduct or incapacity, do not count toward the threshold.

Certain categories of employees enjoy enhanced protection even within a collective dismissal. Employees on maternity leave, parental leave, or sick leave exceeding a defined period may not be dismissed during those periods. Trade union officers hold additional statutory protection. Employers must identify protected categories before drawing up any dismissal list. Missing one protected employee can invalidate the entire process for that individual and expose the company to reinstatement claims.

• Threshold check: workforce size as of the date the process begins
• Window check: any 30-day rolling period, not calendar month
• Reason check: economic/organisational/technological cause required
• Protected-category audit: maternity, parental leave, trade union officers
• Mutual agreement count: five or more employer-driven agreements included

What are the consultation and notification obligations?

Once the threshold is met, the employer must open a formal consultation with trade unions or – where no union exists – with employee representatives elected specifically for this purpose. The consultation must begin before any decision is made final. An employer who presents a completed redundancy list to employee representatives and then invites comments has not complied. The consultation must be genuine, conducted in good faith, and aimed at agreeing the terms of the dismissal agreement (porozumienie) or, failing that, the employer's unilateral regulations (regulamin zwolnień grupowych).

Simultaneously – not after – the employer must notify the District Labour Office (PUP) in writing. The notification must include the reasons for the dismissals, the number and categories of employees affected, the proposed timeline, and the criteria used to select employees for dismissal. The PUP has no veto power, but it must receive the notification at the same time as the consultation opens. A gap between the two – even of one day – is a procedural defect. We obtained a reversal of a PIP enforcement decision for a manufacturing client in Silesia (autumn 2025) precisely because the employer had notified the PUP one day before the consultation opened, satisfying the sequence but not the simultaneity requirement.

The consultation period lasts at least 20 days. If a porozumienie is reached with trade unions or employee representatives, the employer may proceed after the 20-day period. If no agreement is reached, the employer must issue unilateral regulations and notify the PUP of the outcome. The PUP then has 30 days from the date of that final notification before any termination letters can be handed to employees. This 30-day standstill is absolute. Terminations issued before it expires are unlawful, regardless of how carefully the earlier steps were followed.

For employers covered by the German Desk or employing staff across borders, the consultation rules interact with posted worker obligations and – for companies with European Works Councils – with transnational information and consultation requirements. Foreign investors entering Poland should review employment law compliance obligations for foreign-owned companies operating in Poland before initiating any large-scale restructuring.

How is severance calculated and what costs should employers budget?

Statutory severance under the collective dismissal regime is mandatory and non-waivable. It applies to every employee dismissed as part of the collective process, regardless of the reason for selecting that individual. The amount depends on length of service: one month's salary for employees with less than two years' service, two months' salary for two to eight years, and three months' salary for more than eight years. The salary base is the employee's average monthly remuneration calculated in the same way as holiday pay.

Severance is capped at 15 times the minimum monthly wage in force at the time of dismissal. In 2026, the minimum wage is PLN 4,666 gross per month, placing the cap at approximately PLN 69,990. For high-earning employees – senior managers, specialists, or employees with long tenure – the cap may be reached. Employers sometimes fail to model this correctly, underestimating total liability when the workforce includes employees earning well above average.

Beyond statutory severance, the employer may be liable for notice period pay. Employees may be placed on garden leave during the notice period or paid in lieu of notice. The notice period for employees with more than three years' service is three months. For a dismissed group of 30 employees with mixed tenure, the total notice-period cost can easily reach PLN 500,000 before severance is added. Outplacement services, while not mandatory, are increasingly expected and can reduce the risk of litigation.

Our team secured a settlement outcome for a foreign-owned logistics subsidiary in Mazowieckie (spring 2026) where the employer had underestimated its severance exposure by approximately PLN 800,000 due to incorrect salary-base calculations. Early modelling would have avoided the dispute entirely.

To receive an expert assessment of your collective dismissal cost exposure and procedural timeline, contact info@kordeckipartners.com.

What are the three most common procedural mistakes?

The collective dismissal regime is procedurally dense. Errors compound quickly: a defect in the consultation phase does not merely make that step unlawful – it can invalidate every termination letter issued afterward. Three mistakes account for the majority of employment litigation arising from collective dismissals in Poland.

Mistake one: treating consultation as information. Employers frequently prepare a restructuring plan internally, present it to employee representatives as a fait accompli, and then run a nominal consultation. Polish courts, applying standards set by the Supreme Court of Poland (Sąd Najwyższy), have consistently held that consultation must be substantive. Representatives must have enough time and information to propose alternatives. A 20-day minimum is the floor, not a target. If the employer's timeline cannot accommodate genuine consultation, the timeline must change – not the consultation.

Mistake two: incorrect threshold calculation. Employers sometimes exclude fixed-term employees or employees on civil-law contracts from the headcount. Both errors are incorrect. The workforce size for threshold purposes includes all employees bound by an employment contract, regardless of contract type. Fixed-term employees dismissed for economic reasons within the 30-day window count toward the dismissal tally. An employer who dismisses 28 employees believing the threshold is 30 – because two fixed-term employees were excluded – has triggered the regime without following it. Personal liability of the company's management board members may follow.

Mistake three: issuing terminations before the 30-day PUP standstill expires. This is the most irreversible error. Once a termination letter is handed to an employee before the standstill period ends, the dismissal is unlawful. The employee is entitled to reinstatement or compensation. Courts do not treat premature termination as a curable defect. Employers who discover the error mid-process face a binary choice: withdraw the terminations and restart, or defend litigation knowing the procedural breach is documented.

• Document the consultation opening date and PUP notification date – they must match
• Count all employment-contract workers in the threshold calculation
• Track the 30-day PUP standstill on a shared calendar with legal oversight
• Identify protected employees before the dismissal list is finalised

How do the rules apply across three business scenarios?

Abstract procedure becomes clearer through concrete scenarios. The rules do not change across industries, but the practical challenges differ significantly depending on workforce composition, union presence, and ownership structure.

Manufacturing plant in Silesia. A plant with 280 employees decides to close one production line, eliminating 31 positions over eight weeks. The workforce includes two active trade unions. The employer must consult both simultaneously. If the unions reach different positions, the employer must attempt to reconcile them. Failing agreement, it issues unilateral regulations. The 30-day standstill runs from the date the final PUP notification is sent after the consultation concludes. Given the eight-week operational timeline, the employer should open the consultation at least 10 weeks before the planned last day of employment.

IT company in Mazowieckie. A software house with 95 employees eliminates 10 positions following loss of a major contract. No trade union exists. The employer must organise an election of employee representatives within a reasonable time – typically seven to 14 days. If employees fail to elect representatives despite the employer's good-faith efforts, the employer may proceed with the PUP notification and issue regulations unilaterally. The National Court Register (Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy, KRS) filing of the company's restructuring decision does not substitute for the PUP notification. Many IT employers in Warsaw make this error, assuming corporate documentation satisfies labour law requirements.

Foreign-owned subsidiary in Lower Silesia. A German parent instructs its Polish subsidiary to reduce headcount by 35 employees as part of a group-wide restructuring. The Polish entity is the employer of record. The collective dismissal procedure must be run entirely under Polish law, regardless of the parent's internal timeline. The subsidiary cannot shorten the 30-day standstill because the parent's board meeting is scheduled earlier. For investors structuring cross-border employment arrangements, the interaction between Polish employment law and group restructuring decisions is addressed in detail in our guide on posted worker obligations and cross-border employment compliance. Additionally, foreign investors with complex ownership structures may find it useful to review Polish family foundation structures when considering longer-term asset and succession planning alongside restructuring decisions.

Each scenario underlines the same principle: the collective dismissal procedure operates on its own timeline. Business decisions must accommodate it, not the other way around.

For a tailored strategy on managing collective dismissal timelines and cross-border employment structures, reach out to info@kordeckipartners.com.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Can an employer avoid the collective dismissal regime by offering mutual termination agreements instead of issuing dismissal notices?

A: Partial avoidance is possible, but only up to a point. Mutual termination agreements concluded at the employer's initiative count toward the collective dismissal threshold once five or more are concluded within the 30-day window. If the total of employer-initiated terminations and employer-driven mutual agreements reaches the applicable threshold, the full collective dismissal procedure applies to all of them. Structuring the process as purely voluntary does not remove the obligation if the economic cause originates with the employer.

Q: How long does the entire collective dismissal procedure take from start to finish?

A: The minimum statutory timeline is approximately 50 days. This comprises at least 20 days of consultation, followed by the employer's final notification to the PUP, followed by the 30-day standstill before termination letters can be issued. In practice, the timeline is longer. Organising employee representative elections, preparing notification documents, and managing union disagreements typically add two to four weeks. Employers planning a restructuring should budget at least 10 to 12 weeks from the decision to proceed to the earliest possible termination effective date.

Q: Does a work permit or EU Blue Card status affect how an employee is treated in a collective dismissal?

A: The collective dismissal rules apply equally to employees regardless of nationality or permit status. A foreign employee holding a work permit in Poland or an EU Blue Card has the same statutory severance entitlements and the same protection against premature termination as a Polish national. The employer must also notify the relevant authority – the Office for Foreigners (Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców) in some cases – when a foreign employee's employment is terminated, as this may affect the validity of the permit. Employers with significant numbers of international employees, particularly those with employment lawyer Warsaw mandates involving whistleblower Poland obligations, should conduct a permit-status audit before finalising the dismissal list.

What to prepare before opening the collective dismissal procedure

• Workforce census: full headcount including fixed-term and part-time employees, with contract types and tenure dates
• Protected-category list: employees on maternity, parental, or sick leave; trade union officers with statutory protection
• Draft PUP notification: reasons, affected categories, timeline, and selection criteria
• Severance model: total exposure calculated using correct salary-base methodology and the 2026 PLN 4,666 minimum wage cap
• Consultation calendar: 20-day minimum, with milestones for agreement or unilateral regulations, and the 30-day standstill start date

Specific situations require specific legal input. A collective dismissal that appears procedurally clean at the start can become irreversible litigation if one step is missed. Our team provides full procedural oversight – from threshold analysis through PUP notification to post-dismissal dispute management – to ensure the process is defensible at every stage.

To discuss how the collective dismissal rules apply to your company's restructuring, email info@kordeckipartners.com.

About KORDECKI & Partners

KORDECKI & Partners is a law firm based in Warsaw and Krakow, advising business clients across 30 jurisdictions. Our team combines expertise in Polish and international law with a practical approach to employment restructuring, collective dismissal procedures, and workforce compliance. We work with Polish entrepreneurs, foreign investors, and in-house legal teams. To discuss your situation, contact info@kordeckipartners.com.

Disclaimer: This publication is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information herein should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel tailored to your specific circumstances. KORDECKI & Partners assumes no liability for actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this material. For advice regarding your particular situation, please contact info@kordeckipartners.com.