Equal treatment: making the text of the provisions available to an employee

An employer must make the text of the provisions concerning equal treatment of women and men available to an employee. This is stated by the Polish National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) in its section on equal treatment in employment.

This guide concerns only that obligation and its connection with equal treatment. It is not a general guide to hiring an employee.

How should the text be made available?

According to PIP, the text is made available:

• in writing, or
• in another manner adopted by the employer.

The obligation concerns making the text of the provisions on equal treatment of women and men available to an employee.

Employee dignity and recruiting candidates

PIP links the obligation to respect an employee’s dignity in the workplace, among other things, to:

• equal treatment of employees in employment,
• the prohibition of direct and indirect discrimination, including at the stage of recruiting job candidates.

Do not treat making the text available as proof of compliance with the prohibition of discrimination. Keep checking whether the provisions have been made available separate from assessing conduct towards employees and candidates. This guide is not intended to determine the acceptability of specific job advertisements or resolve disputes.

Do not confuse this with information on employment conditions

PIP describes information on employment conditions separately from making the equal-treatment provisions available. It specifies deadlines of 7 and 30 days from the day the employee is admitted to work in the section concerning information on employment conditions, not in the passage on making the provisions available.

Do not apply those deadlines to the obligation discussed here. This guide does not set out the scope or conditions for providing information on employment conditions.

Optional organizational checklist

You may use two questions as an organizational aid:

• Has the text of the provisions concerning equal treatment of women and men been made available to the employee?
• Which method was used: in writing or another manner adopted by the employer?

This is an optional suggestion for organizing activities, not an official form. The checklist does not introduce a requirement for signed confirmation from the employee and does not replace the obligation to make the text available.