How much will the night work allowance be in 2021?

Employees can work at different times of the day, as well as at night. Due to the nuisance of night work, the legislature granted employees an allowance for wages. The amount of this allowance shall be affected by the working time applicable to the individual months of the calendar year. In 2021, the amounts of the allowance will therefore depend m.in on the working time fixed for that year.

The night time includes 8 hours between 21:00 and 7:00 (Art. 1517 § 1 K.p.). Its time frame is determined by the employer in the establishment. If the company does not specify specific hours of night time,the night time is assumed to be 10 hours from 21:00 to 7:00. In this case, the allowance for night work is granted to the employee for each hour of work during this time frame.

Among the workers working at night, a group of „night workers” was identified. These are persons whose working time schedule includes at least 3 hours of night work at any given age or whose working time of at least one quarter of the working time during the tax period falls on a nightly period.

It should be added that working time at night must not exceed 8 hours per day if it carries out particularly dangerous or high physical or mental activities. However, this restriction does not apply to:

  • employees managing the workplace on behalf of the employer,
  • in order to protect human life or health, protect property or the environment or to correct failures.

„Night workers” are also entitled to code allowances for night work.

A night worker is entitled to an allowance of 20% of the hourly wage for each hour of night work resulting from the minimum wage (Article 1518 § 1 K.p.). From 1 January 2021, the minimum wage will be PLN 2,800.

The method of calculating the allowance for 1 hour of night work is governed by § 4b of the Regulation of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy on how to determine the remuneration during the period of non-work and the remuneration on which compensation, severance payments, compensatory allowances and other entitlements provided for in the Labour Code are calculated (Journal of Laws of 2017, item 927).

To this end, the minimum wage for a given year should be divided by the number of hours of work to be worked in a given month.

It does not therefore apply as a divisor the number of hours resulting from the distribution of the worker’s working time or the number of hours actually worked by him in a given month, only the nominal number of hours to be worked, calculated in accordance with Article 130 K.p.

The provision of Article 1518 ( 2) of the K.p. provides for the possibility of paying a lump sum instead of allowances for each hour of night work. However, its payment is only allowed for night workers who work at night permanently outside the workplace. The fixed amount of the lump sum, as a general rule, should correspond to the expected dimension of night work. This lump sum shall not be reduced if the worker has worked fewer hours at night. On the other hand, the employee must be compensated for the lump sum when he has worked more hours than was accepted for the establishment of the lump sum.

Source: Gazeta Podatkowa No. 94 (1760) of 2020-11-23 (author: Ewa Madejek)https://biznes.interia.pl/praca/news-wysokosc-dodatkow-za-prace-w-porze-nocnej-w-2021-r,nId,4874638#utm_source=paste&utm_medium=paste&utm_campaign=chrome

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