Hire Employees in Poland From France

Both countries require cause réelle et sérieuse, a real and serious reason, before an employer can end an indefinite contract, so this isn’t the flexible-versus-rigid gap it is with some other countries. Where French employers get caught out is that a lot of what governs French employment sits in collective bargaining agreements and sector-specific rules rather than the Labour Code directly, and Poland doesn’t work that way.

Collective bargaining agreements don’t have the same role in Poland. In France, notice periods, and a great deal else, are frequently set by the applicable convention collective for the sector, not just the Code du travail. Poland’s statutory notice tiers, 2 weeks, 1 month or 3 months based on tenure, are set directly by law and apply the same way regardless of industry, there’s no equivalent sector-by-sector collective agreement layer determining the basics.

Statutory severance kicks in early in France and has no direct Polish equivalent. French employees generally become entitled to indemnité de licenciement after 8 months of service, calculated on a formula tied to length of service, for most dismissals other than serious misconduct. Poland doesn’t run an equivalent individual severance entitlement, statutory severance in Poland sits within group layoff legislation once redundancies reach a certain scale, not in every standard dismissal.

Works council consultation works differently. France’s Comité Social et Économique has mandatory consultation rights over dismissals and restructuring once a company reaches certain size thresholds. Poland has its own works council and trade union framework, but the thresholds and the specific role in an individual dismissal decision aren’t the same, don’t assume the CSE process transfers across.

The working week is a different baseline. France’s legal working week is 35 hours, with overtime and its premium rates calculated from that baseline. Poland’s standard is 40 hours, with overtime capped at 150 hours a year and premiums of 50% to 100% depending on when the overtime falls. A role costed against the French 35-hour baseline needs to be recosted against Poland’s 40-hour standard, not just relabelled.

Statutory annual leave is higher in France, and the two systems count it differently. France’s statutory minimum is 5 weeks, 25 days, a year. Poland’s starts at 20 days, rising to 26 after 10 years of combined work history, with 13 separate public holidays sitting on top rather than included in the leave count, similar in structure to how France treats its own public holidays separately, just with different totals on each side.

Non-compete compensation is one area that actually does translate. French law requires a contrepartie financière, ongoing compensation, for a post-termination non-compete to be enforceable. Poland requires the same in principle, generally at least 25% of prior pay for the restricted period. This is one of the few areas on this page where the underlying requirement is genuinely similar, not a gap to plan around.

If travail dissimulé and salariat déguisé are familiar, Poland’s version will make sense quickly. French employers already navigate the line between genuine freelance work and disguised employment, and URSSAF’s scrutiny of worker classification. Poland has its own version of the same underlying problem, and since a 2026 reform, a Polish labour inspector can now make that reclassification decision administratively, with immediate effect. If you’re currently paying a Poland-based worker as a contractor rather than an employee, see our guide on B2B contract reclassification in Poland.