In Poland, there are special labor guarantees for employees approaching retirement age. These individuals receive pre-pension protection, which limits the employer's ability to terminate employment or reduce salaries. However, these rules do not apply to all employees and have several exceptions. This is reported by InPoland.
Pre-pension protection in Poland: who is entitled
According to the Polish Labor Code, special protection is granted to employees who have no more than four years remaining until they reach retirement age.
In practice, this applies to women aged 56 and men aged 61. During this period, employers cannot terminate the employment contract if the employee will be able to receive a pension upon reaching the appropriate age due to their work history.
In addition to protection from termination, the law also prohibits reducing the salary of these employees.
Who the law protects from dismissal
Pre-pension protection only applies to individuals working under an employment contract. It does not matter whether it is for a specified or an unspecified period.
This position was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Poland in its decision of September 30, 2025.
In contrast, employees working under civil law contracts cannot benefit from such guarantees. Special protection before retirement is not provided for them.
It is also important to note that the right to pre-pension protection can only be used once in a lifetime.
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In which cases an employee may still be deprived of protection
Despite legislative guarantees, there are situations where the employer can change working conditions or terminate a labor relationship even with a protected employee.
Such exceptions include:
- loss of qualifications necessary to perform the job;
- medical opinion about the loss of ability to perform one's duties;
- introduction of new wage regulations for the entire workforce or for a specific group of employees.
Polish legislation also emphasizes that the key criterion for obtaining pre-pension protection is the age of the employee, not the duration of their employment or insurance history.
It is worth noting that Poland is preparing a large-scale reform of the sick leave payment system. The government is considering the possibility of fully transferring the payment for periods of incapacity for work from employers to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).