On-demand leave in Poland is a feature of the Labour Code that has no direct equivalent in many other jurisdictions, which is exactly why it trips up international employers operating in Poland. Employees are entitled to take up to four days of on-demand leave per calendar year, requested on the same day they want to use it — but that right is not unconditional, and it is not an extra allowance on top of normal annual leave. This article explains how many days of on-demand leave apply, how employees must request it, when an employer can legally refuse, and the mistakes HR teams most often make when handling it.
1. What is on-demand leave in Poland, and how many days apply
On-demand leave is not a separate benefit — it is a portion of the employee's regular annual leave entitlement, distinguished only by how it is requested. Under Article 167² of the Labour Code, the employer is obliged to grant, at the employee's request and on the date the employee specifies, no more than 4 days of leave in each calendar year.
In practice, this means an employee entitled to 20 or 26 days of annual leave (depending on length of service) does not receive 4 additional days — those days are simply a portion of the same pool that can be used at short notice, without advance planning. The 4-day limit applies per calendar year regardless of how many employers the person has worked for during that year.
2. How employees must request on-demand leave
Unlike ordinary annual leave, which should follow a leave schedule or be agreed with the employer in advance, on-demand leave can be requested on the very day the employee wants to take it. Article 167² states that the employee must submit the request at the latest on the day the leave is due to start.
Poland's Supreme Court clarified this deadline in a ruling of 15 November 2006 (case I PK 128/06): the request should be submitted before the employee's scheduled start time for that day, unless the workplace regulations or established company practice allow a later notification. Employers operating in Poland should set out the accepted notification channel in the workplace regulations (e.g. through an HR system, by phone, or by email) — this reduces disputes and makes the requests easier to track.
3. Can an employer refuse on-demand leave
The employer's duty to grant on-demand leave is not absolute. In a ruling of 28 October 2009 (case II PK 123/09), the Supreme Court held that an employer may refuse on-demand leave where a specific, protection-worthy interest of the employer requires the employee's presence at work on the date requested. A refusal cannot be routine or arbitrary — it must be based on concrete, exceptional organisational circumstances.
It is equally important that the employee cannot start on-demand leave unilaterally before the employer approves it. Under a Supreme Court ruling of 16 September 2008 (case II PK 26/08), starting the absence before approval can be treated as unauthorised absence from work and, in serious cases, as a grave breach of basic employee duties — potentially justifying summary dismissal under Article 52 §1(1) of the Labour Code.
4. Common employer mistakes with on-demand leave
A handful of mistakes recur in how companies operating in Poland handle on-demand leave:
- Assuming unused on-demand days are simply lost at year end. In reality, they are not forfeited — they remain part of the general annual leave pool, which is why the outcome depends on whether the whole year's leave was used, not on the on-demand portion in isolation. For the specific September 30 carry-over deadline that applies to any unused annual leave, see our article on carry-over leave.
- Treating on-demand leave as an extra allowance on top of the 20 or 26-day entitlement, rather than as part of it.
- Requiring more advance notice than the law allows (e.g. "one day ahead" instead of same-day), without that requirement being set out in the workplace regulations.
- Issuing blanket, routine refusals without pointing to a specific, exceptional business need — such refusals have no basis in Supreme Court case law.
- Failing to document the reason for a refusal, which weakens the employer's position in a labour court dispute or a Labour Inspectorate (PIP) audit.
5. How Time Harmony supports on-demand leave management
Time Harmony lets HR teams handle on-demand leave in line with the Labour Code, without manually tracking limits or missing the same-day notification requirement.
The Electronic Leave Requests module handles annual leave, on-demand leave, care leave and unpaid leave as distinct request types, each following its own rules. The system prevents the on-demand leave limit from being exceeded, and managers approving a request see immediately how many days of each type the employee has left.
Through the My Time Harmony mobile app, an employee can submit an on-demand leave request the same day, from anywhere, and a manager can approve it with a single tap — matching the same-day notification requirement. Every request is automatically forwarded to HR, which simplifies record-keeping in the event of an audit.
For a broader look at what happens to any unused annual leave, including the September 30 deadline, see our article on carry-over leave, or on unused leave in general.
Summary
On-demand leave in Poland gives employees the right to take up to 4 days of annual leave per calendar year at short notice — requested at the latest on the day it starts. It is not an absolute right: an employer can refuse it in exceptional, justified circumstances, and the employee cannot begin it without approval. Setting out clear rules in the workplace regulations, and applying them consistently, helps HR teams avoid the most common mistakes with on-demand leave.
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