It is the employer who decides whether such needs arise. He should give the overtime work order.

It happens very often that employees forget about it and perform tasks beyond their working time standards, and the employer does not know about it. This situation occurs especially in the era of remote work, where the possibility of controlling the employee's working time is significantly limited.

The problem of the right to remuneration for overtime work does not arise when an employee receives a clear order to perform a specific work outside the working time standards. It is not a problem when the employee notifies the supervisor of the need to work overtime and receives such consent.

Is the employer, therefore, obliged to compensate the employee for overtime work if they do not result from the timesheets or did not know about them?

The regulations do not stipulate that an order to work overtime requires a special form. It is assumed that overtime work may also be performed without the employer's explicit order, but with his knowledge.

However, it is not enough just to work overtime. The supervisor must know about it. If he doesn't react, it may be considered as overtime consent.

More in the article by Iwona Jaroszewska-Ignatowska and Natalia Basista "Silent consent to overtime" for Rzeczpospolita (article from 1 October 2020).