Heat waves with temperatures reaching 40°C are becoming the new normal, and not just in southern Europe. They are increasingly common in central Europe too — a region that, until recently, was known for its temperate climate. As a result, governments across the region are being forced to introduce rules protecting workers from the effects of extreme heat, and employers have to stay on top of these changes and implement them as they land. Poland is no exception: heat regulations at work in Poland are becoming a genuine compliance topic for HR teams managing Polish operations, not just a seasonal inconvenience. The stricter temperature limits described below only take effect from January 2027, but it's worth understanding now what already applies, and what to prepare for.
What employers must do about heat today
Under Article 207 § 1 of the Polish Labor Code, employers have a general duty to ensure safe and hygienic working conditions — heat included. In practice, for now, this means:
- providing free, cold drinks once the indoor temperature exceeds 28°C, or 25°C for outdoor work (under the existing general health and safety at work regulation),
- responding to signs that employees are unwell and allowing them to rest,
- there is currently no statutory temperature threshold that automatically forces a stoppage of work.
In other words, during the summer of 2026, decisions about shortening the working day, adding breaks, or moving tasks to cooler hours largely rest with the employer — but documenting those decisions properly matters just as much as making them, especially in the event of a National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) inspection.
What the new regulation changes, and from when
On 9 July 2026, Poland's Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy signed an amendment to the general health and safety at work regulation — the first in Polish labor law history to introduce maximum working temperatures. It was published on 10 July 2026 (Dz.U. 2026 item 927) and enters into force six months later, on 11 January 2027.
The new rules, once in force, set out two separate thresholds:
- 28°C indoors for standard/office-type work, 25°C indoors for physically demanding work, and 25°C outdoors for any type of work — above these levels, employers must apply technical solutions (e.g. air conditioning) or organizational ones (extra breaks, shortened hours, adjusted schedules), agreed after consultation with employees or their representatives,
- 35°C indoors (for any type of work) and 32°C outdoors (for physically demanding work only) — only above this higher threshold does work have to actually stop, with employees keeping their full pay for that time.
This distinction matters: 28°C/25°C is the threshold for an organizational response, while 35°C/32°C is the threshold at which work genuinely has to be interrupted. It's also worth knowing the new rules don't apply across the board without exception — §30a(8) exempts uniformed services, military personnel, and staff at childcare facilities for children under 3 (nurseries) from the maximum-temperature duty.
How to prepare your organization before the new rules apply
The six-month vacatio legis is a good window to get processes in order before they become a legal requirement rather than scrambling once they do. Worth doing now:
- set an internal procedure for who decides on an extra break or a shortened day during a heat wave, and how that decision is communicated to the team,
- make sure every such decision is recorded in the time and attendance system, not just agreed verbally — this protects the company during a PIP inspection, which tends to happen more often during heat waves,
- check whether your time-tracking system can flexibly record events like an extra break or an early finish without manual recalculation of hours.
Whether it's an extra break during a heat wave or an employee sent home early for the day, the event should be recorded in the time and attendance system — otherwise it shows up at month-end as an unexplained time deficit.
In Time Harmony, this is handled through absences: users can define any custom absence type, for example "BHP-related work stoppage/leave," and use it to mark an employee being sent home early because of heat. This gives you:
- a complete, compliant record of when and why working hours were shortened or stopped,
- immediate visibility in the records that the event doesn't create a deficit to be made up,
- data that's ready for a PIP inspection without reconstructing the situation from a shift supervisor's memory.
The Polish Labor Code and organizing work during a heat wave
The Polish Labor Code doesn't yet directly regulate work in high temperatures, but a few of its provisions are directly relevant when organizing work during a heat wave:
- Article 207 § 1 — the general duty to provide safe and hygienic working conditions, which is also the basis for responding to heat,
- Article 134 — the right to a 15-minute break counted as working time once the working day reaches at least 6 hours — a natural point at which to schedule an additional "cooling" break,
- the general health and safety at work regulation, which covers appropriate conditions in workplace premises.
Any change to the standard break schedule should stay consistent with the company's work regulations or collective agreement — and any such change is best reflected in the time and attendance system right away.
Heat regulations at work in Poland - summary
Heat regulations at work in Poland currently come down to one key distinction: what already applies today, and what only takes effect from January 2027. Even so, it's worth building an internal procedure for responding to high temperatures now, and consistently recording every extra break or shortened working day in your time and attendance system — the best protection for employers and employees alike.
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