Poland adopted the law on employee involvement in the European Company (SE) in March 2005.

Country overview



Employee board-level representation in Poland exists only in publicly-owned and partially privatised companies. Both unions and employers were consulted about the transposition of the directive but there seems to have been no public debate.

Polish legislation provides for employee representatives at supervisory board level in state-owned and partially privatised companies, where the proportion of employee representatives at board level can range from two-fifths, where the state owns the whole company, to around a third, where the state is a minority shareholder. In addition in state-owned operations, which have not yet been transformed into companies, there are “workers councils”, elected by all employees, who can object to management decisions. However, there is no right to employee representatives on the boards of purely private companies and the number of companies where the state is involved is continually declining.

The draft legislation on the transposition of the directive on employee involvement in European companies was presented for consultation to both the main unions and the main employers’ associations, as required by Polish legislation.

There appears to have been no public debate.

Special negotiating body (SNB)

Standard rules under the fallback procedure

Misuse of procedures and structural change