Pursuant to Article 94(3) of the Labor Code, the employer is required to maintain and keep records in paper or electronic form regarding matters related to the employment relationship, as well as employees’ personnel files—that is, so-called employee records.
The employer is also required to store employee records in a manner that ensures their confidentiality, integrity, completeness, and availability, under conditions that do not pose a risk of damage or destruction, for the duration of employment, as well as for a period of 10 years from the end of the calendar year in which the employment relationship was terminated or expired, unless separate regulations provide for a longer retention period for employee records.
However, pursuant to Article 125a(4) and (4a) of the Act of December 17, 1998, on Retirement and Disability Pensions from the Social Insurance Fund (consolidated text: Journal of Laws of 2024, item 1631, as amended) — (hereinafter: “the Act”)—the contribution payer is required to retain payroll records, pay slips, or other supporting documents used to determine the basis for calculating a retirement or disability pension for a period of 50 years from the date the insured person ceases employment with the contribution payer, subject to paragraph 4a.
Article 125a(4a) of the Act provides that a contribution payer is required to retain payroll records, pay slips or other supporting documents used to determine the calculation basis for the pension of an insured person (i.e., an employee or a contractor) for a period of 10 years from the end of the calendar year in which:
- the insured person ceased employment with the contribution payer, in the case of an insured person registered with that contribution payer for insurance after December 31, 2018;
- the information report referred to in Article 4(6a) of the Act of October 13, 1998, on the Social Insurance System was submitted. However, a contribution payer who has not submitted the information report for the insured person (with the exception of an insured person registered for insurance after December 31, 2018), is required to retain payroll records, pay slips or other evidence used to determine the basis for calculating a retirement or disability pension for a period of 50 years from the date the insured person ceased employment with that contribution payer.
The list of documents comprising employee records is specified in the Regulation of the Minister of Family, Labor, and Social Policy of December 10, 2018, on employee records (i.e., Journal of Laws of 2024, item 535, as amended).
Pursuant to this provision, in addition to personnel files, employee records include the following documentation, maintained separately for each employee:
- documents related to the recording of working hours, including:
- working hours records;
- employee requests regarding:
- granting leave from work to attend to personal matters,
- applying for and taking leave from work in the case of raising at least one child under the age of 14 (Article 188 of the Labor Code),
- establishing an individual work schedule within the work schedule system to which the employee is subject (Article 142 of the Labor Code),
- applying a reduced workweek system (Article 143 of the Labor Code),
- applying a work schedule under which work is performed exclusively on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays (Article 144 of the Labor Code),
- applying a work schedule providing for different start times on days that, according to that schedule, are workdays for the employee (Article 140(1) § 1 of the Labor Code),
- the use of a work schedule providing for a time window during which the employee decides the start time of work on a day that, according to that schedule, is a workday for the employee (Article 140(1) § 2 of the Labor Code),
- applying for and taking time off from work due to force majeure (Article 148(1) of the Labor Code),
- applying for and taking care leave (Article 173(1) of the Labor Code);
- documents related to:
- the application of the task-based work schedule system (Article 140 of the Labor Code),
- by agreeing with the employee on a date for another day off in lieu of work performed on a day off resulting from the work schedule in an average five-day workweek (Article 151(3) of the Labor Code),
- working overtime or remaining on call outside normal working hours;
- consent:
- of an employee caring for a child under 4 years of age to work under work schedules that provide for an extension of the daily working hours (Article 148(3) of the Labor Code) and of an employee raising a child under 8 years of age to work overtime, during night hours, under a split-shift system, and for secondment outside the permanent workplace (Article 178 § 2 of the Labor Code),
- pregnant employees for secondment outside the permanent workplace and employment under a split-shift system (Article 178 § 1 of the Labor Code);
- documents related to applying for and taking annual leave;
- a statement (list) of wages paid and other work-related benefits, as well as the employee’s request for payment of wages in person (Article 86 § 3 of the Labor Code);
- a record of the issuance of work clothing, footwear, and personal protective equipment, as well as documents related to the payment of a cash equivalent for the use of personal clothing and footwear and for their laundering and maintenance (Art. 237(6) and Art. 237(7) of the Labor Code).
Thus, it should be noted that, as a general rule, the retention period for employee records pertaining to employment relationships established before January 1, 2019, is 50 years, and for records pertaining to employment relationships established on or after January 1, 2019, – 10 years, counting from the end of the calendar year in which the employment relationship was terminated or expired.
However, if an employee was hired between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2018, the retention period for employee records may be reduced to 10 years if the employer submits an informational report to ZUS (Social Insurance Institution).
In the following entries, we will present the rules regarding the retention of specific components of employee records.