Poland: End of January deadline for not setting up a Company Social Benefits Fund

Employers with fewer than 50 employees must formally notify their employees by 31 January 2026 that they will not be setting up a Company Social Benefits Fund ("CSBF") and will not be paying holiday allowance.

The obligation to create a CSBF applies, as a rule, to employers with at least 50 full-time employees (FTEs) as of 1 January 2026. This does not mean that employers with lower levels of employment are automatically released from such an obligation.

In order to avoid the obligation in 2026 to create a CSBF and pay holiday allowance, an employer that employs fewer than 50 FTEs as of 1 January 2026, and is not covered by a Collective Bargain Agreement or Remuneration Regulations, must:

• take a formal decision in this respect; and
• provide employees with information about this by 31 January 2026 in the customary manner.

This information only applies to 2026 and must be repeated in subsequent calendar years if necessary.

Cases of fewer than 50 FTEs where a Collective Bargaining Agreement or Remuneration Regulations apply (or where such regulations should have been introduced but were not) require analysis regarding the need to agree on not creating a CSBF and not paying holiday allowance in these documents.

What if such information is not provided to employees?

Failing to provide such information may result in, inter alia, the obligation to pay holiday allowance to employees who have taken 14 calendar days of uninterrupted holiday leave in 2026, or fines imposed on the employer’s representatives responsible (in some cases up to PLN 30,000, although usually lower).