HR and payroll legislative updates: Q4/2023

1. Increase in minimum wage and minimum hourly rate in 2024

The Journal of Laws of September 15, 2023, under item 1893, published the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of September 14, 2023, on the amount of the minimum wage and the amount of the minimum hourly rate in 2024. The Regulation increases the minimum wage and the minimum hourly rate twice during 2024, i.e. as of January 1 and July 1, 2024.

Therefore, in the period from January 1 to June 30, 2024:

• the minimum wage will be PLN 4,242,
• the minimum hourly rate will be PLN 27.70.

Whereas in the period from July 1 to December 31, 2024:

• the minimum wage will be PLN 4,300,
• the minimum hourly rate will be PLN 28.10.

     2. Postponement of deadline for implementation of e-Delivery

On the website www.gov.pl/web/cyfryzacja and in the Journal of Laws of 2023, item 2540, a communication from the Minister of Digitalisation dated 22 November 2023 was posted about another postponement of the effective date of the obligation to use electronic delivery from 10 to 30 December 2023.

Simultaneously, a draft of the act amending the maximum date for the implementation of e-Delivery to 1st January 2025 has been submitted by the Minister of Digitalisation. The current wording of the act on electronic delivery provides for the maximum date when the obligation to use e-Delivery must come into force as 1 January 2024.

     3. New requirements for organising work at workstations equipped with display screens

On 2 November 2023, the Regulation amending the regulations on health and safety at work at workplaces equipped with screen displays was published, which introduces new requirements for the organisation of work at workplaces equipped with screen displays. The new regulations oblige employers, within 6 months of the entry into force of the amending regulation, to adapt workstations equipped with screen displays created before the date of entry into force of this regulation to the minimum requirements of occupational safety and health and ergonomics specified in this regulation.

Employers will be required, inter alia, to:

• equip workstations with a stationary screen monitor or stand and an additional keyboard and mouse where the employee uses a portable computer system and uses it for at least half of the daily working hours,
• equip, at the employee's request, the workstation with a footrest,
• provide employees with glasses or contact lenses to correct their eyesight, where the results of occupational medicine eye examinations establish the need for their use at work.

     4. Reduction of the personal income tax exemption limit for benefits from the Social Fund

From 1 January 2024, benefits paid from the Company Social Benefits Fund, which are covered by the exemption under Article 21, section 1, item 67 of the Personal Income Tax Act, will be tax-free within the annual limit of PLN 1,000 in a given calendar year stipulated therein. Until 31 December 2023, the exemption limit was PLN 2,000.