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Labour law and HR Workplace bullying – what will the new regulations change and how to prepare your company

The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has presented a new version of a draft amendment to the regulations on mobbing, which aims to clarify the definition and raise the standards of employee protection. The changes will affect employers' obligations in terms of prevention, documentation and liability, as well as the minimum level of compensation.

Authors: Karolina Barałkiewicz-Sokal, Karol Kopaczewski

Current definition and the employer's obligation

Article 94(3) § 1 of the Labour Code explicitly imposes on employers the obligation to prevent mobbing. The definition in § 2 refers to persistent and prolonged harassment or intimidation that leads to effects such as reduced professional self-esteem, humiliation or ridicule, isolation, or exclusion from the team. Case law has emphasised the importance of ‘long-term’ and real effects on the employee.

What changes have been made in the second version of the draft?

In the new version of the draft from the end of May 2025, the definition has been clarified and simplified: the core element is to be ‘persistent harassment’, and mobbing is to be repetitive, recurring or constant in nature.

Incidental, one-off acts, even if they violate personal rights, were excluded from the draft. At the same time, justified and properly expressed criticism of work is not to be treated as mobbing. It was clarified that behaviour may take physical, verbal and non-verbal forms.

Minimum level of compensation – evolution of the proposal

During consultations, various thresholds for minimum compensation were proposed: the initial materials indicated a lower threshold equal to six months' salary; in more recent discussions of the amended version, a proposal for at least 12 times the minimum wage appears. The aim is to ensure that compensation is commensurate with the scale of the harm, as emphasised in the case law of the Supreme Court.

New compliance obligations

The draft provides for the obligation to define and implement, in a collective labour agreement or regulations (or, if this has not been regulated in previous forms, in the form of a notice), rules and procedures for preventing violations of dignity, discrimination and mobbing, with six months for adapting internal regulations after the Act is announced.

How to prepare for the amendment?

The current version of the draft redefines mobbing as ‘persistent harassment’ of a repetitive or constant nature, excluding one-off incidents and distinguishing between justified criticism and harassment. For employers, this means:

• the need to clarify the criteria for assessing behaviour that may constitute mobbing,

• new compliance requirements (procedures, training, documentation),

• preparation for potentially higher financial risks arising from employee claims.

How can we help?

We have been supporting our clients for years in preparing for the implementation of regulations, including labour law. We offer comprehensive anti-mobbing support: documentation audit, policy updates, staff/HR training, documentation security and representation.

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