Working remotely in Poland: your employer has to pay for your electricity and your internet
TL;DR: Polish law requires your employer to cover the cost of the electricity and the telecommunications services you use to work from home. Not as a perk, as a statutory obligation under article 67²⁴ of the Kodeks pracy. They must also supply your equipment, or pay you a cash equivalent for using your own. Four categories of worker – including pregnant employees and anyone raising a child under four – can make a request their employer must grant. Remote Work Europe read the consolidated code. ⚠️ All of it applies to employees. None of it applies to B2B contractors.
Most European countries left working from home to be negotiated. Poland wrote it into the labour code, and was unusually specific about who pays for what.
If you are employed in Poland on an umowa o pracę and you work remotely, you have a set of rights that people in a lot of neighbouring countries would be surprised by. They are not widely written about in English, and some of them are worth money.
Does my employer have to pay for my internet and electricity in Poland?
Yes. It is an obligation, not a courtesy.
Article 67²⁴ § 1 of the Kodeks pracy lists what an employer is obowiązany – obliged – to do for an employee working remotely. There are four duties, and the second is the one worth reading twice.
The employer must:
- Provide the materials and work tools, including technical equipment, needed for remote work.
- Provide installation, servicing and maintenance of those tools, or cover the necessary costs of installation, servicing, operation and maintenance – and cover the costs of the electricity and the telecommunications services needed to do the work.
- Cover other costs directly connected with remote work, where reimbursement has been agreed in the workplace agreement, the internal regulations, or the instruction to work remotely.
- Provide the training and technical support needed to do the work.
🎯 The electricity and telecoms duty is unconditional. It is not something the parties agree to; it sits in the statute alongside the duty to supply a laptop. Other costs, by contrast, are reimbursed only if they were agreed – so the distinction between the two categories matters if you are negotiating.
What if I use my own laptop?
You are entitled to a cash equivalent.
Article 67²⁴ § 2 allows the parties to agree that the employee will use their own materials and tools, provided those meet the safety requirements in the code. Where that happens, § 3 gives the employee an ekwiwalent pieniężny – a cash equivalent – at a level agreed with the employer.
The lump sum that most employers actually use
Article 67²⁴ § 4 allows the obligation to cover costs, or to pay the equivalent, to be replaced by a lump sum – a ryczałt – set at a level corresponding to the expected costs the employee incurs.
This is why many Polish employees receive a flat monthly remote-work allowance rather than submitting bills. It is the statutory alternative, not a way around the rule.
📌 And the code says how the figure should be arrived at. Under § 5, setting the equivalent or the lump sum takes into account, in particular, consumption norms for materials and tools, their documented market prices, the quantity of material used for the employer’s purposes, norms for electricity consumption, and the cost of telecommunications services.
So a lump sum is meant to be calculated from something. If yours looks arbitrary, the code gives you the vocabulary to ask how it was worked out.
Can my employer refuse to let me work remotely in Poland?
Usually yes. For four groups of worker, usually no.
Remote work is normally something the parties agree, either when the contract is made or during employment, on the employer’s initiative or at the employee’s request.
But article 67¹⁹ § 6 obliges the employer to grant a request from:
- a pregnant employee
- an employee raising a child up to the age of four
- an employee caring for another member of their immediate family, or another person in the same household, who holds a disability certificate or a certificate of severe disability
- parents in the categories at article 142¹ § 1 points 2 and 3 – broadly, parents of a child with a certificate under the Za życiem act, and parents of a child with a disability certificate or a moderate or severe disability ruling who also has an opinion on early development support, special educational needs, or rehabilitation and educational classes
The employer may refuse only where granting the request is not possible because of how work is organised or the kind of work the employee does. And if they refuse, article 67¹⁹ § 6 requires them to give the reason, in writing or electronically, within 7 working days.
📌 For the article 142¹ parents, the right does not expire when the child turns 18. Article 67¹⁹ § 7 says so explicitly.
They also cannot easily take it back again
Article 67²² lets either side make a binding request to stop remote work and restore the previous arrangement, with a changeover date agreed between them of no more than 30 days.
But § 2 removes that option from the employer where the employee is in one of the protected groups above, unless remote work has genuinely become impossible because of work organisation or the kind of work involved.
And asking cannot be used against you
Article 67²³ is short and worth knowing by heart. Refusing to consent to a change of working conditions, making a request for remote work as one of the protected workers, or ending remote work under article 67²², cannot constitute a reason justifying termination of the employment contract by the employer.
When can my employer order me to work from home?
Only in narrow circumstances, and you have to confirm you can.
Article 67¹⁹ § 3 allows the employer to instruct an employee to work remotely in two situations: during a state of emergency, a state of epidemic threat or a state of epidemic, and for three months afterwards; or during a period when the employer cannot temporarily provide safe and hygienic conditions at the usual workplace because of force majeure.
Even then, the instruction depends on the employee first declaring that they have the premises and the technical conditions to work remotely.
The employer can withdraw the instruction at any time with at least two days’ notice (§ 4). And if the employee’s circumstances change so that remote work is no longer possible, they must tell the employer, who must withdraw the instruction immediately (§ 5).
What is occasional remote work, and why is it different?
Twenty-four days a year, at your request, with none of the cost protections.
Article 67³³ § 1 provides for praca zdalna okazjonalna: remote work performed occasionally, at the employee’s request, up to a maximum of 24 days in a calendar year.
⚠️ The catch is in § 2, and it is easy to miss. Articles 67¹⁹ to 67²⁴ do not apply to occasional remote work. That means no obligation to provide equipment, and no obligation to cover your electricity or your internet.
So the two regimes are genuinely different things. Regular remote work carries the cost obligations. Occasional remote work is a flexibility allowance, and you pay for it yourself.
Checks on occasional remote work – on how it is performed, on health and safety, and on information security including data protection – happen on terms agreed with the employee (§ 3).
Does any of this apply if I am on a B2B contract?
No. And in Poland that exclusion covers an enormous number of people.
Everything above sits in the Kodeks pracy and applies to pracownicy – employees working under an employment contract. A B2B contractor invoicing a client is not an employee, so none of it reaches them. No equipment. No electricity. No internet. No protected right to request.
That matters more in Poland than in most countries, because so much of the IT and professional services sector works on B2B rather than employment contracts. A large share of the people who would benefit most from these provisions are structurally outside them.
⚖️ It is also why the line between the two is now being policed more actively. Since July 2026 a regional labour inspector has been able to find, by administrative decision, that a relationship described as B2B is really employment – which we cover in detail in what Poland’s new inspection law actually changed. If that finding is made, the employment rights in this article come with it.
For the wider picture on living and working there, see our Poland country guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does my employer have to pay for my internet if I work from home in Poland? Yes. Article 67²⁴ § 1 point 2 of the Kodeks pracy obliges the employer to cover the costs of electricity and telecommunications services necessary to perform remote work. The obligation is statutory and does not depend on agreement.
Can my employer pay me a flat monthly allowance instead of covering actual bills? Yes. Article 67²⁴ § 4 allows the duty to cover costs, or to pay a cash equivalent, to be replaced by a lump sum. Under § 5 the amount should reflect matters such as electricity consumption norms, documented market prices and telecommunications costs.
What if I use my own computer for remote work in Poland? Where the parties agree that the employee will use their own materials and tools, and those meet the health and safety requirements, article 67²⁴ § 3 entitles the employee to a cash equivalent at a level agreed with the employer.
Who can insist on working remotely in Poland? Under article 67¹⁹ § 6 the employer must grant a request from a pregnant employee, an employee raising a child under four, an employee caring for a family member or household member with a disability certificate, and parents in the categories at article 142¹ § 1 points 2 and 3, unless it is impossible because of work organisation or the type of work.
How many days of occasional remote work can I take in Poland? Up to 24 days in a calendar year, at the employee’s request, under article 67³³ § 1. Articles 67¹⁹ to 67²⁴ do not apply to it, so the employer’s cost obligations do not attach to occasional remote work.
Can my employer order me to work from home in Poland? Only during a state of emergency, epidemic threat or epidemic and for three months afterwards, or where safe conditions at the normal workplace are temporarily impossible because of force majeure, and only if the employee first declares they have suitable premises and technical conditions.
Do remote work rights in Poland apply to B2B contractors? No. These provisions are in the Kodeks pracy and apply to employees under an employment contract. A contractor invoicing a client is not covered by any of them.
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. This article summarises provisions of the Polish Kodeks pracy as consolidated on 1 September 2026. How they apply depends on your own circumstances and your contract.
Sources
- Kodeks pracy, consolidated text announced by the Marshal of the Sejm on 1 September 2026, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1245. Articles 67¹⁹, 67²², 67²³, 67²⁴, 67³³ and 142¹. Retrieved from the Sejm’s ELI service and read in full on 30 September 2026
- Ustawa z dnia 11 marca 2026 r. o zmianie ustawy o Państwowej Inspekcji Pracy oraz niektórych innych ustaw, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 473
