Remote and hybrid work in Poland are regulated directly by the Labour Code. Since 7 April 2023, employers and employees have operated under a permanent framework covering where remote work can take place, how it is agreed, which costs the employer covers and what documentation is required.
The rules replaced Poland’s previous system of telework and remain in force in 2026. They matter not only to Polish companies but also to international employers managing staff whose employment is governed by Polish law or who habitually work in Poland.
For foreign employees, the starting point is that working from home is not treated simply as an informal perk. Polish law distinguishes regular remote work from occasional remote work, and different obligations follow from each arrangement.
What counts as remote work in Poland?
Remote work is defined as work performed entirely or partly at a location indicated by the employee and agreed with the employer, including the employee’s home, using means of communication at a distance.
This means the rules can cover both fully remote employment and hybrid working. An employee does not need to work from home five days a week for the arrangement to qualify as remote work.
Remote work can be agreed when the employment contract is signed or introduced later. Depending on the circumstances, the arrangements can be established through an agreement, workplace regulations or other mechanisms provided for by the Labour Code.
What must an employer provide?
Regular remote work creates practical obligations for the employer.
Employers generally have to provide the materials and equipment necessary to perform the job remotely. Where an employee uses their own equipment, arrangements can instead be made to compensate for that use.
Employers must also cover specified costs associated with remote work. These include electricity and telecommunications services necessary to perform the employee’s duties.
The costs can be reimbursed directly or covered through a lump-sum payment reflecting expected expenditure. The legislation therefore does not treat the employee’s home as a workplace where all work-related operating costs automatically fall on the employee.
What must a remote-work policy cover?
Remote working also requires rules governing how the arrangement operates in practice.
These can cover communication between the employer and employee, work monitoring, equipment installation and maintenance, data security and procedures connected with health and safety.
Occupational health and safety is commonly referred to in Poland as bezpieczeństwo i higiena pracy (BHP). Working from home does not remove the employer’s responsibilities in this area.
The remote-work framework includes risk-assessment requirements and information about organising a safe remote workspace. Employment-law updates cited in the research brief also emphasise the importance of written policies or agreements and BHP documentation being in place before remote work begins.
This is particularly relevant during inspections by the State Labour Inspectorate, Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy (PIP). Legal updates published in 2026 report scrutiny of employers’ remote-work documentation, including policies, agreements, risk assessments and BHP instructions.
An informal agreement between a manager and employee about working from home may therefore be operationally convenient, but it does not replace the formal requirements applying to regular remote work.
Who can request remote work?
Certain groups of employees have additional statutory protection when requesting remote work.
They include pregnant employees, parents of children under four and certain employees caring for people with disabilities.
This does not create an absolute right to perform every job remotely. An employer can refuse a qualifying request where remote working is impossible because of the organisation of work or the nature of the employee’s duties.
The distinction is important: the legislation strengthens the employee’s right to request the arrangement while recognising that some roles cannot practically be performed away from the workplace.
How does the 24-day occasional remote-work allowance work?
Polish law separately recognises occasional remote work requested by the employee.
This form of remote work is limited to 24 days in each calendar year and is subject to a lighter set of employer obligations than regular remote working.
Some requirements applying to regular remote work, including certain obligations concerning equipment and running costs, do not apply in the same way to occasional remote work.
The 24-day provision is therefore designed for genuinely occasional home working rather than as a substitute for a permanent hybrid arrangement. According to the legal sources in the research brief, going beyond the annual limit effectively requires the arrangement to be treated as regular remote work, bringing the fuller set of obligations into play.
What does this mean for hybrid workers?
A hybrid arrangement can fall within the regular remote-work framework even when an employee spends part of the week in an office.
The key distinction is not simply the number of home-working days. Employers need to establish which legal form of remote work is being used and apply the corresponding rules on documentation, equipment, costs, communication and BHP.
For an international employee joining a Polish company, this also means that a contract describing a position as “hybrid” does not provide the complete picture. The practical arrangement operates within the wider Labour Code framework.
Similarly, an overseas company managing employees in Poland cannot assume that its global home-working policy automatically replaces Polish requirements where Polish employment law applies.
What should employers have in place?
For regular remote or hybrid working, the framework described by the official and legal sources covers several core areas: a formal basis for remote work, rules governing how it operates, arrangements for necessary equipment and costs, data-security procedures, and appropriate BHP documentation and risk assessment.
Occasional remote work needs to be distinguished from these continuing arrangements and kept within its separate 24-day annual limit.
The permanent framework has now been part of Polish employment law for more than three years. For companies building remote or hybrid teams in Poland, the practical issue in 2026 is therefore not whether remote work is legally recognised, but whether the arrangement being used matches the requirements attached to that particular form of remote work.
