Remote work in Poland is no longer a pandemic-era improvisation — it has been a fully codified part of the Polish Labour Code since April 2023, and in 2026 it sits at the centre of a real tension between what employees want and what employers are willing to offer. For international HR teams managing staff in Poland, that gap creates practical risk: the legal obligation to track remote work correctly doesn't go away just because remote work itself is becoming less common. This article walks through the current legal framework, what 2026 market data shows about employer and employee attitudes, and how Time Harmony helps you stay compliant regardless of which way your organisation leans.
Remote work in Poland – the legal framework
Since 7 April 2023, remote work has been permanently regulated in Chapter IIc of the Polish Labour Code (articles 6718–6733). The law defines three models:
- Fully remote work — the employee performs their duties entirely outside the employer's premises.
- Hybrid (partial) remote work — a mix of office and remote days. The Labour Code doesn't use the word "hybrid" directly, but this arrangement follows from the general definition in article 6718.
- Occasional remote work — a short-term arrangement triggered only by the employee's own request.
In every model, the place of work has to be agreed between employer and employee — neither side can impose it unilaterally.
Occasional remote work – the 24-day limit
Occasional remote work, governed by article 6733 of the Labour Code, is capped at 24 days per calendar year, regardless of contract type or working hours. A few practical points HR teams outside Poland often miss:
- Only the employee can request it — the employer cannot assign occasional remote work.
- The request can be submitted in paper or electronic form, with no statutory notice period.
- The employer can refuse without giving a detailed legal justification, though the reason should be communicated.
- Articles 6719–6724 (which cover cost reimbursement for equipment, electricity and internet under regular remote work) don't apply to the occasional model.
- The 24-day limit is fixed by law — an internal policy cannot extend or reduce it. The National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) has confirmed this position.
2026 hasn't brought changes to the underlying rules themselves — what has changed is the intensity of PIP inspections in this area, which makes accurate record-keeping more important, not less.
Remote work in Poland in 2026 – what the market data shows
Polish 2026 survey data shows a clear pull in opposite directions. On the employee side, a SW Research study for Devire found that 70% of employees would choose remote or hybrid work as their first option if offered. On the employer side, the trend runs the other way: the share of medium and large companies allowing remote work dropped from 71% to 62% year-on-year, and the share banning home office entirely rose from 23% to 37%. Among companies that keep a hybrid model, EY's research shows 43% now require at least two office days a week, and 46% require three or more.
For HR teams managing Polish operations from abroad, this means two things at once: local staff still expect flexibility to be part of the conversation, and local management is under real pressure to bring people back — a combination that makes clear, well-documented remote-work policy more important than ever.
Tracking remote work in Time Harmony
To keep up with this shifting landscape, Time Harmony is introducing remote work as a dedicated attribute of the workplace within the T&A module, fully aligned with the Labour Code. The new capability covers:
- Occasional remote work — logged against the annual limit (with an optional monthly cap), supporting non-consecutive days within a single request.
- Regular remote work — a recurring weekly pattern, fixed time blocks, or an open-ended "until further notice" arrangement set by an authorised person.
- A catalogue of remote-work addresses per employee, with a configurable limit on active addresses.
- A choice of workflow — automatic logging, or a request that requires manager approval.
- A widget showing who is currently working remotely, plus a separate widget tracking pending remote-work requests.
Marking a day as remote work doesn't affect absence records or change how settlements are calculated — it's purely a location tag visible on the schedule, in reports and in settlement periods.
Why this matters for international HR teams
- Compliance without guesswork — occasional and regular remote work are logged separately, so they're never confused with absence.
- Visibility across time zones — a manager based outside Poland can see, at a glance, who's working remotely on a given day without chasing updates over chat.
- Less manual admin — automatic logging or a simple approval flow cuts the overhead of managing an increasingly mixed set of arrangements across teams.
- Data for policy decisions — reporting on the remote/on-site split helps HQ calibrate return-to-office policy against what's actually happening on the ground in Poland, rather than assumptions imported from other markets.
Summary
Remote work in Poland in 2026 sits at a genuine crossroads: a stable, well-defined legal framework in place since 2023, against a market where employer and employee expectations are visibly diverging. Whichever direction your organisation takes, accurate, Labour-Code-compliant tracking remains a legal obligation, not an optional nicety — and it's exactly what Time Harmony's new remote-work tracking in the T&A module is built to support.
How does Time Harmony help track remote work in Poland? The T&A module lets you mark occasional and regular remote work as a distinct workplace attribute, track the annual limit automatically, and see live status across your team — without affecting absence records or settlement calculations.
See also: Recording working hours in Poland – legal requirements and employer obligations
