The new regulations on workplace mobbing and discrimination introduce significant changes for both employees and employers. The amendment to the Polish Labour Code revises the definition of mobbing, expands protection against discrimination, establishes minimum compensation amounts, and strengthens employers’ obligations to prevent workplace misconduct. For businesses, this means reviewing existing procedures, personnel management practices, and the ways in which employee complaints are handled.
Entry into Force and Employer Obligations
The new provisions are scheduled to enter into force on 5 November 2026. The transitional provisions are also intended to cover certain behaviours that began before this date but continued after the Act entered into force.
Employers with at least 10 employees have until 5 May 2027 to amend their workplace regulations or introduce separate anti-mobbing and anti-discrimination regulations setting out the applicable rules, procedures, and frequency of preventive measures.
The draft regulations must be agreed upon with the relevant trade union organisation or employee representatives elected within the organisation. The consultation and agreement procedure is expected to last up to 30 days.
It should be emphasised that the obligation to actively and systematically prevent workplace mobbing and discrimination is intended to apply to all employers, regardless of the number of employees. The extended deadline for updating workplace regulations should therefore not be treated as a postponement of all obligations relating to employee protection.
The New Definition of Mobbing – What Is Changing?
One of the most significant changes is the revised definition of mobbing as conduct involving persistent harassment of an employee. Such conduct may be repetitive, recurring, or continuous and may undermine the employee’s dignity.
Importantly, the revised definition removes the requirement to demonstrate a specific consequence of mobbing, such as a health impairment or a diminished assessment of one’s professional competence. It also removes the requirement to establish that the perpetrator acted intentionally. In practice, these changes may make it easier for employees experiencing persistent harassment at work to pursue legal claims.
Examples of mobbing include:
- Humiliating or degrading an employee;
- Intimidating an employee;
- Undermining an employee’s assessment of their professional competence;
- Unjustified criticism, belittling, or ridiculing an employee;
- Making it difficult for an employee to perform their duties;
- Isolating an employee from the team or excluding them from the group.
However, the new provisions do not mean that every workplace conflict will qualify as mobbing. A single, isolated incident will generally not meet the requirement of persistent harassment. Nor does mobbing include legitimate and appropriately expressed performance management or constructive criticism of an employee’s work.
For employers, this means maintaining appropriate communication standards, documenting HR decisions, and distinguishing legitimate supervision from conduct that infringes employees’ rights.
Who Can Commit Mobbing?
Responsibility for mobbing is not limited to relationships between managers and subordinates. The perpetrator may be an employer, a manager, a colleague, a subordinate, or a person performing work under a legal arrangement other than an employment contract.
This approach requires employers to treat the prevention of mobbing as an organisation-wide responsibility rather than an issue concerning management alone. An anti-mobbing policy should reflect actual workplace relationships, including cooperation with individuals engaged under civil-law contracts.
Expanded Protection Against Discrimination
The amendment also introduces provisions addressing discrimination by association and discrimination based on a perceived characteristic.
Discrimination by association occurs when an employee is treated less favourably because of a characteristic of a person with whom they are associated. For example, an employee may be treated unfavourably because their child has a disability.
Discrimination based on a perceived characteristic occurs when an employee is treated less favourably because they are wrongly assumed to possess a particular characteristic, even though they do not actually possess it.
The expanded protection means that, when assessing potential violations, employers should consider not only the employee’s own characteristics but also situations in which unfavourable treatment arises from their personal relationships or from incorrect assumptions about them.
Burden of Proof and Pursuing Legal Claims
The amendment introduces procedural measures intended to make it easier for employees to seek legal protection. Employees will be required to establish a plausible case that a violation has occurred, after which the employer will be required to demonstrate that no such violation took place.
The court’s approach to the legal classification of claims is also important. If the established facts justify legal protection on a different basis from the one identified by the employee, for example, a breach of personal rights, an incorrect legal classification of the events should not, in itself, determine the dismissal of the claim.
From an employer’s perspective, robust internal procedures, thorough documentation of actions taken, and impartial investigations into complaints therefore become particularly important. An inadequate response may increase the risk of litigation and make it more difficult to demonstrate that the organisation has properly fulfilled its employee protection obligations.
Minimum Compensation Amounts – Increased Financial Risk
The new provisions establish minimum compensation amounts linked to the statutory minimum wage.
Under the provisions as described:
- Mobbing: minimum compensation is to amount to six times the statutory minimum wage.
- Single or isolated act of discrimination: minimum compensation is to amount to one times the statutory minimum wage.
- Repeated discrimination: minimum compensation is to amount to at least three times the statutory minimum wage.
The specified minimum amount for mobbing is intended to apply without requiring the employee to prove that they have suffered a health impairment.
The amendment also provides for the possibility of an employer seeking reimbursement from the actual perpetrator of mobbing for compensation or damages paid, to the extent corresponding to the perpetrator’s degree of fault. However, this mechanism does not relieve the employer of the obligation to respond appropriately to misconduct within the organisation.
A New Framework for Preventing Mobbing: Prevention, Detection and Response
The amendment reinforces the importance of a systematic approach to preventing mobbing and discrimination. In practice, employers’ measures should cover three complementary areas.
1. Prevention
The foundation should be clear standards of conduct, informing employees about unacceptable practices, training managers, and fostering an organisational culture based on respect. It is also essential to ensure that the organisation’s rules are widely understood and consistently applied in practice.
2. Detection
Employers should provide employees with accessible and safe channels for reporting misconduct. Clear procedures for receiving, documenting, and investigating complaints are also important, as is maintaining confidentiality to the extent necessary for a proper investigation.
3. Response and Support
Every complaint should be handled fairly, impartially, and in a manner appropriate to the circumstances. Where misconduct is confirmed, suitable corrective and organisational measures may be necessary. Providing support to affected individuals and preventing retaliation are equally important.
Simply adopting a policy is not enough if it is not implemented in practice. From a legal risk management perspective, both the content of the documentation and the organisation’s actual conduct matter.
How Can Your Business Prepare for the New Regulations?
In view of the upcoming changes, we recommend that employers begin preparing well in advance. The first steps should include:
- Conducting an audit of existing workplace regulations, internal procedures, and HR practices;
- Reviewing whether current definitions of mobbing and discrimination comply with the new regulations;
- Developing or updating procedures for reporting and investigating misconduct;
- Designating individuals responsible for receiving complaints and conducting internal investigations;
- Training managers and employees on the new standards;
- Establishing rules for documenting complaints, investigative steps, and corrective measures;
- Preparing for the required consultations with trade unions or employee representatives.
The scope of these measures should reflect the size of the business, its organisational structure, and its specific risks. Implementing new procedures should also be accompanied by a review of team management practices and the organisation’s approach to workplace conflicts and employee complaints.
Summary
The 2026 amendment to the Polish Labour Code strengthens employee protection against mobbing and discrimination while increasing employers’ obligations regarding the organisation and documentation of preventive measures. The changes affect not only the definitions of misconduct and the rules for pursuing legal claims but also everyday personnel management practices.
For businesses, the key challenge will be moving beyond merely having formal policies in place towards genuinely and systematically preventing unacceptable workplace behaviour. An early legal audit, updated documentation, and appropriate management training can help reduce the risk of disputes and foster a safer working environment.