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Inspections of the National Labor Inspectorate in 2023

According to recent announcements, in 2023 the National Labor Inspectorate plans to carry out about 60,000 inspections in entities employing employees. This is a significant increase compared to previous years, when the number of inspections oscillated around 50,000 per year. In addition, NLI also announced extensive activities in the field of protection against accidents and general safety at work.

In the strategy for 2022-2024, the National Labor Inspectorate focuses primarily on the control of three areas:

  • chemical risk – inspections in enterprises where chemical substances are produced or used, which have the highest level of concentration in the work environment, as well as workplaces where employees are exposed to chemical substances, their mixtures, agents or technological processes with carcinogenic activity or mutagenic;
  • construction – as part of the inspection of the construction sector, the National Labor Inspectorate plans to carry out about 1,000 inspections at construction sites in order to reduce the number of accidents at work there. NLI will also continue last year’s preventive and control action “Construction. STOP accidents!”;
  • harmful factors – the Labor Inspectorate will carry out intensified inspections in workplaces with a high accident rate and those where employees are exposed to high occupational risk due to the strong impact of harmful factors while performing their duties.

An important area to be checked in 2023 will also be the legality of employment for both Polish and foreign employees. The influx of Ukrainian citizens to Poland in connection with the ongoing armed conflict is not without significance here. The inspectors will focus not only on disclosing cases of undeclared work, but also on work declared incorrectly, e.g. with understated working hours. In this regard, inspections will also be continued at temporary work agencies, employment agencies, but also at user employers.

Inspections of compliance with the trade ban on Sundays and public holidays in commercial establishments have also been announced. The total number of inspections in large-scale and smaller facilities will amount to about 350.

A novelty in 2023 will be inspections verifying newly emerging obligations of employers in connection with changes in labor law, such as remote work, new employee rights in connection with the so-called the “work-life balance” act or the sobriety control of employees. The National Labor Inspectorate has also received new powers in the field of bridging pensions from 2023. The new act (Act of 9 March 2022 amending the act on bridging pensions and some other acts, Journal of Laws 2022, item 755) allows the controllers to assess the process of qualifying the work performed by the employer as work in special conditions or of a special nature based on the criteria specified in the said Act.

In addition to routine inspections at workplaces, inspections will also be carried out as a result of complaints received by PIP from employees or former employees. The most common problems reported by employees are the issues of non-payment of remuneration or untimely payment of remuneration, non-compliance with the regulations on working time or improper establishment or termination of employment.