Poland can now convert your B2B contract into employment without a court. What actually changed

TL;DR: Poland did not make disguised B2B contracts illegal in 2026. They were already illegal. Article 22 of the Kodeks pracy has long said that work done under an employer’s direction, at a place and time the employer sets, is employment whatever the contract is called – and that replacing an employment contract with a civil-law one is not permitted. What changed on 8 July 2026 is enforcement: a regional labour inspector can now make that finding by administrative decision, without going to court. Remote Work Europe read both acts. There is a warning stage first, a voluntary window until 8 July 2027, and the decision is not immediately enforceable for most people.

If you work in Poland on a B2B contract, you have probably seen a headline this summer telling you the labour inspectorate can now convert it into an employment contract.

That is true. It is also the least interesting thing about what happened, and the way it is being told gets the substance backwards.

Yes, and it still is. What was never legal was using it to disguise an employment relationship.

This distinction is the whole article, and it predates 2026 entirely.

Article 22 § 1 of the Kodeks pracy defines the employment relationship. In the consolidated text, a worker undertakes to perform work of a specified kind

“na rzecz pracodawcy i pod jego kierownictwem oraz w miejscu i czasie wyznaczonym przez pracodawcę”

for the employer, under the employer’s direction, and at a place and time the employer designates, in return for pay.

Then come the two paragraphs that matter, and they have been sitting in the Kodeks pracy for years:

§ 1¹ – employment in the conditions described in § 1 is employment under an employment relationship, “bez względu na nazwę zawartej przez strony umowy” – regardless of the name the parties gave the contract.

§ 1² – “Nie jest dopuszczalne zastąpienie umowy o pracę umową cywilnoprawną przy zachowaniu warunków wykonywania pracy, określonych w § 1.” It is not permissible to replace an employment contract with a civil-law contract while keeping those working conditions.

🎯 So the rule is old. Poland has said for years that a contract’s label does not decide what it is. A genuine B2B relationship – your own business, your own methods, your own risk, several clients – has always been lawful and remains so.

What was missing was a practical way to enforce it. That is what 2026 supplied.

What changed on 8 July 2026?

The route. Not the rule.

The instrument is the Ustawa z dnia 11 marca 2026 r. o zmianie ustawy o Państwowej Inspekcji Pracy oraz niektórych innych ustaw, published in the Dziennik Ustaw on 7 April 2026 as Dz.U. 2026 poz. 473. Most of it came into force on 8 July 2026.

It inserts a new article 11 ust. 1 pkt 7a into the PIP Act, giving the inspectorate the power to find, by decision, that an employment relationship exists where a civil-law contract was concluded, or where somebody is in fact working for pay in conditions where article 22 § 1 says there should have been an employment contract.

Before this, establishing that took a court case. Now it can be an administrative decision by the okręgowy inspektor pracy – the regional labour inspector.

That is a real and significant change. It is also more constrained than the headlines suggest.

There is a warning stage, and it is in the statute

The same provision makes the decision conditional. The text says the condition for issuing it is non-performance of a prior instruction – “warunkiem wydania decyzji jest niewykonanie polecenia”.

So the sequence is: an inspection, then an instruction to put things right, and only if that instruction is ignored, a decision. An inspector cannot arrive and convert your contract on the spot.

The inspector can also simply sue instead

Article 33a gives the regional inspector a choice: issue the decision, or bring a court action to establish the existence or content of the employment relationship. The act says the court route is used in particular where the relationship needs establishing for a period earlier than a decision can reach.

Three things in the act that the coverage leaves out

This is where reading the statute rather than the briefings changes the picture.

1. What the parties actually want is a factor

Article 33a.4 provides that in these proceedings “uwzględnia się wolę stron” – the will of the parties is taken into account – unless it conflicts with the law, and in particular with employment law or the principles of social coexistence, or is an attempt to circumvent the law.

That is a meaningful qualification and it is almost entirely absent from the English-language coverage. A genuine, freely chosen commercial arrangement is not in the same position as a sham.

2. For most people the decision is not immediately enforceable

Article 33a.5 applies article 108 of the Kodeks postępowania administracyjnego – the provision on immediate enforceability – only to people covered by special protection against dismissal. In practice that means groups such as those close to retirement age or otherwise specially protected.

For everyone else, a decision does not take effect while an appeal is available or running. There is a right of appeal, and a separate right to challenge any order granting immediate enforceability.

3. Opening proceedings restarts the clock on employee claims

Article 33a.8 provides that opening the proceedings interrupts the limitation period on employment claims, which then begins again once the decision or judgment becomes final.

That is a quiet but important consequence, and it cuts in the worker’s favour.

How long do you have to fix an existing arrangement?

Until 8 July 2027.

Article 16 of the act creates a twelve-month window from entry into force. Where a business had a civil-law contract in place before the act commenced, despite the relationship having all the features of employment under article 22 § 1, and voluntarily brings it into compliance by concluding an employment contract within those twelve months, it is not liable under article 281 § 1 pkt 1 of the Kodeks pracy.

⚠️ Read that narrowly. It is immunity from one specific liability under the Kodeks pracy. The act does not say it wipes out social security or tax consequences, and you should not assume it does.

📌 It is also aimed at the business, not the contractor. If you are the person invoicing, this window is something your client may act on, with consequences for you.

Is the inspectorate actually resourced to do this?

Yes, and the act says so in figures. Article 19 sets a maximum state budget allocation for the Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy of 28.2 million zloty in 2026 for carrying out the tasks the act creates.

Funding does not tell you how aggressively a power will be used. It does tell you the power was not passed as a gesture.

What this means if you are on a B2B contract in Poland

Nothing here is legal advice, and whether a particular relationship is employment turns on its own facts. But the test is stated in the statute, and it is worth measuring yourself against it honestly.

Article 22 § 1 asks three things. Are you working under the client’s direction? At a place the client designates? At a time the client designates? The more of those that are true, the closer the relationship sits to employment, whatever the contract says.

It is worth knowing what sits on the other side of that line, because it is not nothing. An employee working remotely in Poland has a statutory right to have their electricity and internet paid for, among other protections that do not reach contractors at all.

  1. Do not rely on the contract’s wording. § 1¹ disposes of that directly, and it has for years.
  2. Look at direction, place and time, because those are the statutory words.
  3. If your arrangement would not survive that test, the twelve months to July 2027 exist for a reason – and the initiative usually sits with your client.
  4. Remember the warning stage. A decision requires a prior instruction to have been ignored.
  5. Take proper advice from a Polish employment lawyer on your own facts. This is a summary of two statutes, not a view about your situation.

How does this compare with Spain?

On this one point, Poland is now arguably stricter than the country with the loudest reputation for it.

Spain’s falso autónomo doctrine is the version most remote workers in Europe have heard of. It works through the Inspección de Trabajo or the courts, and a finding that a relationship is really employment generally requires one of those routes to run its course.

Poland’s new route is administrative. A regional inspector can make the finding directly, subject to the warning stage and the appeal.

⚖️ The counterweights matter, though, and they are real. Spain has no equivalent of the will-of-the-parties provision, and no twelve-month amnesty. So “stricter” is true of the mechanism and not of the whole picture, which is the sort of distinction that gets lost when a legal change crosses a language barrier.

And if you are not already in Poland, there is a prior question that catches many people out: Polish law restricts who may register a business at all, which we cover in can you move to Poland as a remote worker?

If you are weighing the two countries, our guide to being autónomo in Spain covers the Spanish self-employment relationship, and the Poland country guide has the wider picture.

Frequently asked questions

Is a B2B contract still legal in Poland in 2026? Yes. Genuine business-to-business arrangements remain lawful. What is not permitted, and has not been for years, is using a civil-law contract in place of an employment contract while the working conditions described in article 22 § 1 of the Kodeks pracy are maintained.

Can a labour inspector in Poland change my contract without a court? Since 8 July 2026, a regional labour inspector can issue an administrative decision finding that an employment relationship exists, under the new article 11 ust. 1 pkt 7a of the PIP Act. The decision can only be issued after a prior instruction to remedy the breach has gone unperformed, and it can be appealed.

What is the test for employment under Polish law? Article 22 § 1 of the Kodeks pracy: work of a specified kind performed for an employer, under the employer’s direction, at a place and time designated by the employer, in return for pay. Article 22 § 1¹ adds that employment in those conditions is employment regardless of what the parties called the contract.

Is the inspector’s decision enforceable straight away? Not for most people. Article 33a.5 applies the immediate-enforceability provision of the Kodeks postępowania administracyjnego only to those covered by special protection against dismissal or termination. Others have an appeal available.

Is there a deadline to regularise an existing B2B arrangement in Poland? Yes. Article 16 of the act gives twelve months from entry into force, so until 8 July 2027, for a business to voluntarily conclude an employment contract and avoid liability under article 281 § 1 pkt 1 of the Kodeks pracy.

Does the parties’ own preference count for anything? Article 33a.4 provides that the will of the parties is taken into account in these proceedings, unless it conflicts with the law, in particular employment law or the principles of social coexistence, or is aimed at circumventing the law.

We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. This article summarises two Polish statutes as they stood on 30 September 2026. Whether any particular arrangement is an employment relationship depends on its own facts. Speak to a Polish employment lawyer about your own situation.

Sources

  • Ustawa z dnia 11 marca 2026 r. o zmianie ustawy o Państwowej Inspekcji Pracy oraz niektórych innych ustaw, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 473, published 7 April 2026 – dziennikustaw.gov.pl. Read in full. New art. 11 ust. 1 pkt 7a; art. 33a; art. 16; art. 19
  • Kodeks pracy, consolidated text announced by the Marshal of the Sejm on 1 September 2026, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1245 – article 22 § 1, § 1¹ and § 1². Retrieved from the Sejm’s ELI service
  • Ustawa z dnia 13 kwietnia 2007 r. o Państwowej Inspekcji Pracy, as amended

Both texts were read in their current consolidated form on 30 September 2026.