Employer not paying wages in Poland: PIP complaint and labour court

When wages are due

Your employer must pay you at least once a month, on a fixed day set in advance (art. 85 § 1 of the Labour Code). Monthly pay comes after the month, at the latest by the 10th of the next month (art. 85 § 2): pay for March is due by 10 April. If the payday falls on a day off work, you are paid the day before (art. 85 § 3).

• Apart from tax, social insurance and a few sums the law lists, the employer may deduct from your pay only with your written consent, for example rent for housing (art. 87 § 1, art. 91 § 1).
• You cannot give up your right to pay (art. 84).

Not paying on time, or cutting pay or deducting from it without reason, is an offence: a fine of 2,000 to 60,000 zł (art. 282 § 1 pkt 1). You can also claim statutory interest for the delay (art. 481 § 1 of the Civil Code, applied through art. 300 of the Labour Code).

First: collect proof, and ask in writing

Collect what shows your work and your pay: a contract or anything with your terms, payslips, bank statements, messages with the employer, and your own record of days and hours worked, with the names of co-workers.

Then, if you can, ask the employer in writing to pay: which months, how much, by which date. Keep a copy. The law does not require this, but a claim in court must say whether you tried to settle out of court, and if not, why (art. 187 § 1 pkt 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure).

The complaint to the labour inspectorate (PIP)

The Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy (PIP) supervises how employers keep labour law, pay included (art. 10 ust. 1 pkt 1 of the PIP act). Anyone may complain, foreigners too (art. 221 § 1 k.p.a.).

What PIP can do:

• inspect your employer without warning, day or night (art. 24 ust. 1), and question its workers and read its documents (art. 23 ust. 1 pkt 3 and 5);
• order the employer to pay wages due to an employee, at once (art. 11 ust. 1 pkt 7); ignoring the order is another offence (art. 283 § 2 pkt 7 of the Labour Code);
• on a civil contract, require that you get at least the minimum hourly rate (art. 10 ust. 1 pkt 15b, art. 11b);
• prosecute offences against workers’ rights (art. 10 ust. 1 pkt 15).

What PIP cannot do: it is not a court, so it cannot give you a judgment for the money; disputes over pay go to the labour courts (art. 262 § 1 of the Labour Code). Nor can it give your job back.

Your name stays private. Inspectors may not reveal that an inspection follows a complaint, unless you agree in writing (art. 44 ust. 3 of the PIP act). PIP says that in rare cases, such as checks on the legality of work, it asks for your written consent to reveal the complaint, and without it cannot inspect on your complaint (pip.gov.pl).

How long it takes. PIP has a month at most, from receiving a complaint, to deal with it (pip.gov.pl; art. 237 § 1 k.p.a.). The law sets no deadline for the inspection itself: if one is needed, PIP writes to tell you when, and afterwards how it dealt with your complaint (pip.gov.pl).

What the letter says

• your name and address, and your email if you send it electronically;
• the employer’s name and address, and where you work;
• what is wrong: which months, how much if you know, the payday, whether you have a written contract;
• the request: an inspection of the employer;
• your signature.

Respubliko writes this complaint in Polish from your answers. It says nothing about your residence status or work permit. You check it, sign it and send it yourself.

How to send it

Send it to the district labour inspectorate (okręgowy inspektorat pracy), or its branch, for the place where your employer has its seat (pip.gov.pl). If it reaches the wrong office, that office must, within 7 days, pass it on and tell you, or tell you where to send it (art. 231 § 1 k.p.a.).

PIP accepts a complaint (pip.gov.pl):

• in person at an inspectorate or a branch, orally for the record or on a form there;
• by post: the original, signed by hand;
• through e-Doręczenia, signed with a qualified, trusted (Profil Zaufany) or personal signature;
• by email only with an attached file signed in one of those ways. A scan of a signed paper does not count: PIP treats it as anonymous.

ePUAP no longer counts: since 1 January 2026, a letter you send through it no longer has the effect of an e-Doręczenia delivery (art. 147 ust. 2 of the act on electronic delivery).

The labour court

To get a judgment for the money, sue in the labour court (sąd pracy) (art. 262 § 1 of the Labour Code).

• Where: the court for your employer’s seat (or home, for an employer who is a person), or for the place where you work or worked (art. 461 § 1, art. 27 § 1, art. 30 of the Code of Civil Procedure).
• No court fee for an employee’s claim (art. 96 ust. 1 pkt 4 of the court costs act). Only an appeal in a case worth over 50,000 zł costs a fee, on the part above 50,000 zł (art. 35 ust. 1).
• No lawyer needed: you can make your claim orally at the court, and it is written down (art. 466 k.p.c.).
• The risk: if you lose, you may have to pay the employer’s costs (art. 98 § 1); in special cases the court may decide otherwise (art. 102).

3 years. A wage claim expires 3 years after the day it was due (art. 291 § 1 of the Labour Code); after that, the employer may refuse to pay (art. 292). A step before a court, or the employer accepting the debt, interrupts this time, and it then starts again (art. 295). Do not count on a complaint to PIP to do that.

No written contract, or a civil contract

No written contract is the employer’s breach, not yours: it had to confirm your terms in writing before you started work (art. 29 § 2 of the Labour Code). Work under an employer’s direction, at a place and time it sets, for pay, is employment, whatever the contract is called (art. 22 § 1 and § 1¹). A civil contract may not replace an employment contract on those terms (art. 22 § 1²). Both are offences (art. 281 § 1 pkt 1–2).

Since 8 July 2026, PIP can do more:

• the inspector, after hearing both sides, can order the business to put this right (art. 11 ust. 2 of the PIP act);
• if it does not, the district inspector (okręgowy inspektor pracy) can decide that you are employed (art. 11 ust. 1 pkt 7a, art. 33a ust. 3). You count as employed from the date of the decision, or from the start of the inspection if the business ends your work in the meantime (art. 34 ust. 2f–2g). For earlier periods, the district inspector or you can go to the labour court (art. 33a ust. 6; art. 476 § 1 pkt 1¹ k.p.c.);
• PIP says it can do this only if you still work for that business on the day of the inspection; if you have left, the labour court decides (pip.gov.pl);
• the decision may not be a reason to treat you worse or to dismiss you (art. 34 ust. 2l);
• these proceedings interrupt the 3 years on your claims, which start again once the decision or the court’s ruling is final (art. 33a ust. 8);
• on a work permit or a declaration, you need no new one for this change (art. 33 ust. 2 pkt 3, art. 69 pkt 5 of the act on employing foreigners).

If you are a foreign worker

Many foreigners may work without any permit, for example with a permanent residence permit, refugee status, subsidiary protection or temporary protection (art. 3 ust. 1 pkt 6, 8, 9 and 12 of the act on employing foreigners).

• On a work permit or a registered declaration (oświadczenie), if the employer did not pay, it must pay the back wages for the time you worked (art. 17 ust. 5, art. 68 ust. 3 of that act).
• Even if you stay without a valid document, you have a claim for unpaid wages (art. 4 ust. 1 of the 2012 act on foreigners staying illegally). For employment, the law presumes the job lasted 3 months; on a civil contract, that the pay agreed was three times the minimum wage; unless either side proves otherwise (art. 4 ust. 2 and 4). If you have left Poland, the employer pays for sending you the money (art. 5).
• If you stay legally but work without the permit you need, the law has no such special rule: ask free legal help.

The risks, plainly: an inspection also checks whether foreigners work legally (art. 10 ust. 1 pkt 4 of the PIP act), and the inspector must tell the Police or the Border Guard of breaches of the rules on foreigners (art. 37 ust. 2 pkt 3). Staying without a valid document, or working without the permit or declaration you need, can lead to a return decision (art. 302 ust. 1 pkt 1 and 4 of the Foreigners Act). Illegal work also means a fine: at least 1,000 zł for the worker, 3,000 to 50,000 zł for the employer (art. 84 ust. 1–2 of the act on employing foreigners). If your stay or your permit is not in order, talk to free legal help before you send the complaint.

Ending the contract yourself

Paying wages on time and correctly is one of the employer’s duties (art. 94 pkt 5 of the Labour Code). If the employer seriously breaches its basic duties towards you, you may end the employment contract without notice: in writing, giving the reason, within a month of learning of it (art. 55 § 1¹ and § 2, art. 52 § 2). You then get compensation equal to your pay for the notice period; on a fixed-term contract, for the time left, if that is shorter (art. 55 § 1¹). The law does not say when unpaid wages are serious enough: ask free legal help first.

If you were dismissed: 21 days

If your employer ended your employment contract (umowa o pracę), an appeal to the labour court is due within 21 days of receiving the notice (art. 264 § 1–2 of the Labour Code). A complaint to the labour inspectorate does not stop that clock, and the inspectorate cannot give your job back; the labour court can (art. 45 § 1, art. 56 § 1).

What Respubliko writes, and free help

Respubliko writes the complaint to PIP. It does not write court papers or go to court for you.

• PIP gives free advice on labour law by phone: 801 002 006 from a landline or 459 599 000 from a mobile, Monday to Friday, 9:00–15:00, at your operator’s rate. In Ukrainian, on legal work for Ukrainian citizens: 89 333 17 41 (Monday to Wednesday) and 22 111 35 88 (Thursday and Friday), 9:00–15:00. You can also book a call back or see a lawyer at an inspectorate (pip.gov.pl).
• Free legal help (nieodpłatna pomoc prawna) is open to everyone in Poland, foreigners too, in about 1,500 points, in person, by phone or online; book at zapisy-np.ms.gov.pl (gov.pl).