The Polska Grupa Górnicza (PGG), Poland’s largest coal mining company, has expanded the rules for counting professional seniority for its employees. The move follows a September 2025 amendment to the Labour Code which mandates the inclusion of periods of work under civil law contracts (such as contracts of mandate and agency agreements) into the overall seniority record.
While the amendment directly obliges most employers, PGG operates under separate internal regulations that determine employee entitlements tied to seniority. To ensure uniform and transparent treatment, the company’s management and trade union organisations have signed a collective agreement that goes beyond the statutory minimum. The agreement allows periods of professional activity listed in the amended law to be counted not only toward general seniority but also toward specific employee benefits.
What the agreement covers
Under the new rules, PGG employees can now include past periods of work performed under civil law contracts—such as contracts of mandate, agency agreements, and other forms of professional activity indicated in the law—when calculating their seniority for the purpose of various employment rights. These rights include, among others, the length of notice period, annual leave entitlement, certain bonuses and allowances, and eligibility for additional benefits.
The company emphasised that the change applies retroactively, and employees who provide the required documentation will have their seniority recalculated. The process of updating seniority records has already begun, with HR systems being fed and verified with the newly submitted documents. PGG stresses that the aim is to create a single, coherent system for all employees, eliminating previous discrepancies between statutory requirements and internal company practices.
Implementation and impact
The practical implementation is now underway. PGG has called on employees who believe they are covered by the new rules to submit relevant proof of past employment or service. The company’s payroll and HR departments are processing the submissions and updating individual records. According to PGG, the initiative is a result of dialogue with trade unions and a shared goal of fair and transparent treatment of all employees.
The agreement covers workers across all of PGG’s mines and units. The company, which supplies the majority of hard coal to Poland’s power generation sector, employs tens of thousands of people. The new rules are expected to benefit a significant number of employees, particularly those who started their careers under civil law contracts or had gaps in their employment history that were not previously counted.
Unions have welcomed the deal, noting that it removes long-standing inconsistencies and gives workers greater certainty about their entitlements. The agreement also sets a precedent for other state-controlled mining companies in Poland, which may follow suit to harmonise their own internal policies with the amended Labour Code.
Źródło: wnp.pl, Fot. PGG / Bożena Sieja
