This article presents the top 10 rulings issued in employment cases in 2020. In addition, a very current ruling from 2021 regarding interference with employee privacy to protect the general workforce from Covid-19 contamination is discussed. 

The most important issues addressed by the courts in 2020, which you will find in this article, are:

• the employee's right to remuneration for the use of the invention, regardless of whether the employer has obtained patent protection for it
• the obligation of every employer to carry out an occupational risk assessment for every workplace,
• the validity of the regulations depends on the observance of the agreement procedure, and only a negative position of the organisation in one letter can block its introduction,
• the responsibility of the employee for damage caused after the termination of his work and the risk of the employer, who should provide for procedures in case of absence of the employee to ensure organizational continuity;
• a transferred employee to whom the collective agreement of the previous employer applies is entitled to more favourable terms and conditions of employment with the new employer;
• an employer for whom an employee works under a civil contract concluded with another entity is the payer of contributions for that employee - a case of the so-called "ZUS loop";
• an employee cannot be deprived of the right to benefits which have already become due and which arose before the conclusion of the agreement on the suspension of the procedure for the payment of additional remuneration; however, the law acts retroactively when it comes to the employee's benefit
• the possibility of reclassifying a contract for specific work as a contract for the provision of services if the subject of the contract is carried out periodically and the contractor receives a fixed monthly remuneration 
• the status of the protected worker is determined by the status at the time of dismissal and not at the time of court ruling
• if the entrepreneur with whom the consulting contract was concluded also performs management activities, he cannot benefit from the flat tax.

An additional Covid ruling determines that an employer may request private information, e.g. the place of travel, if it is intended to protect employees from Covid, and for refusing information or providing untruths, the employer may dismiss the employee disciplinarily. 

More in the article  adw. Bartłomiej Raczkowski and adw. Natalii Basisty "Key judgments handed down in labour cases in 2020" for Rzeczpospolita (article from 1 April 2021).