Source: https://www.hrcomplianceassist.com/poland/legal-framework
Timestamp: 2020-04-09 06:17:50
Document Index: 449271342

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 94', 'Art. 41', 'Art. 41', 'Art. 41', 'Art. 7', 'Art. 73']

HR Record Retention Requirements | Poland | HR Compliance Assist
Poland - Legal Framework
However, a balance must often be struck between keeping documents for a sufficiently long period of time, so as to meet an employer’s legitimate business objectives, and not keeping those documents unnecessarily, which could give rise to a breach of data protection laws or otherwise create unnecessary risk. Per Poland’s Labor Code (Art. 94, 9b), HR documents should be stored in conditions that protect against unauthorized changes, unauthorized distribution, damage or destruction.
Historically, employee data in Poland had to be retained for 50 years, but this changed effective January 1, 2019, reducing the required record retention period for employee data to 10 years if the employee was hired on or after January 1, 2019 (Act on Shortening the Period of Storage of Employee Files). Going forward, employers will be required to send monthly employee data reports to the Social Security Institution (ZUS) (Polish Social Insurance System Act, Art. 41, 1 and Art. 41f).
Employers also have the option to reduce the required retention period for employees hired between January 1999 and December 2018, to 10 years, starting from the end of the calendar year in which the information report was submitted, by submitting a special information report to ZUS. The report includes a list of information concerning the insured (i.e. the employees) who were registered by the contributions payer (i.e. the employer) for the first time during that period. Employers must provide the insured with a copy of the submitted information report (Social Insurance System Act, Art. 41a-41c; Act on Shortening the Period of Storage of Employee Files, Art. 7, 3).
Multiple laws, decisions, and even everyday life practices apply when assessing the retention period of a document. Historically, the originals of some employee records had to be retained in paper form. Effective January 1, 2019, employer records were specifically permitted to be created and stored electronically (Act on Shortening the Period of Storage of Employee Files). If an employer chooses to keep employee records in paper format, then the employer is also obliged to retain paper copies of electronic records submitted by a job applicant or employee, certified by the employer (or authorized representative) (Sec. 5 of the Regulation).
In addition, note that under the Accounting Act (Art. 73, 1), accounting and inventory documents should be stored in their original form, i.e. if these documents are natively electronic they should be stored in the same form.