The latest draft of the Polish Act on Employee Capital Plans (PPK) was announced on July 17, 2018. The bill is now past its public consultations and Social Dialogue Commission assessment stages. The most important proposals at this stage are:

1. More time for employers

The promulgation of the Act has been postponed to July 1, 2019. Within three months of that date, employers will be obligated to conclude agreements on running PPKs. Initially, the obligation to create PPKs will cover entities employing more than 250 people. The Act will be extended to cover even smaller groups of employers gradually until January 1, 2021, when the obligation to create PPKs will apply to all employers.

2. Exemptions for entities running PPEs

The obligation to create PPKs will not extend to entities running PPEs that cover at least 25 percent of their respective employees (previously it was 50 percent) and the contribution paid to the PPE is at least 3.5 percent of the given employee's remuneration.

3. Privacy of the savings

The Act includes a clause that speaks directly about the privacy of the savings in the PPK.

4. Reduced contribution for more employees

The mandatory minimum contribution to a PPK may be reduced to 0.5 percent of the remuneration for people whose monthly earnings do not exceed 1.2 times the minimum wage.

5. Criminal regulations

The proposed sanction for failure to enter into an agreement to run a PPK, pay contributions, and keep the required data, is a fine of 1,000 to 1,000,000 PLN. Seeking to persuade a PPK participant to leave this scheme is punishable by a fine of up to 1.5 percent of the remuneration fund of the employing entity concerned.

The Act on the Employee Capital Plans will now go to cabinet (the Council of Ministers), and then will be put before parliament. We will inform you of any further developments regarding this act. If there are any issues you would like to clarify now please contact us, and we shall be very happy to help.

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