In the era of coronavirus, thousands of companies are implementing PPK (Employee Capital Plans). What are the relevant deadlines and what are the challenges that employers face?

October 27, 2020 is the deadline for concluding agreements for the management of employee capital plans (PPK) for many employers. However, the conclusion of the agreement does not mean the end of the implementation process – on the contrary. Employers also need to conclude agreements to run PPK, manage non-saving declarations and calculate and transfer first payments. 

The implementation of PPK consists of four important deadlines:

• by September 25, the employer and employees' representatives (trade unions or a special representation of employees) should jointly select the financial institution managing the funds accumulated in the PPK; 
• by October 27, the employer concludes a PPK management agreement with a selected financial institution;
• then, by November 10, the employer concludes an agreement with the same financial institution for running PPK (its appendix is the current list of participants); 
• by December 15 or January 15, 2021, the employer will pay the first contributions to the plan – the date depends on when a given employer pays the remuneration. 

Due to COVID-19, PPK is currently being implemented by two large groups of employers:

• entities employing at least 50 employees as of June 30, 2019, and
• entities employing at least 20 employees as of December 31, 2019. Originally, the first group was to implement PPK in May, but due to the pandemic, the parliament postponed this deadline by 9 months. 

Such a combination plus the pandemic means great challenges for employers.

First of all, wherever there are no trade unions, it is necessary to select employees’ representatives. This is not an easy task in the pandemic and requires extra precautions.

Secondly, the pandemic and the number of employers implementing PPK does not make contacting with financial institutions easy, especially when it comes to the willingness to conduct any additional talks. 

More in the article by Łukasz Kuczkowski entitled “The second stage of implementing PPK is even more challenging. Due to COVID-19”, which appeared in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (issue from 3 September 2020).