Over 50 days off work in a year. 26 days of leave is only the beginning
An employee under an employment contract collects from the Kodeks pracy (Labour Code) alone up to 35 days off a year: 26 days of annual leave, 5 days of carer's leave, 2 days due to force majeure and 2 days of childcare. Beyond the Labour Code there are still compassionate leave entitlements and blood donation — an honorary blood donor has time off on the day of donation and the following day, and a man can donate whole blood up to 6 times a year. In a record but realistic set of circumstances this gives more than 50 days.
Legal state as of 07 September 2026. The Polish version is the source version.
The basis: annual leave, 20 or 26 days
The amount of annual leave depends on length of service: 20 days for service shorter than 10 years and 26 days once 10 years are reached. Periods of education also count towards service, in the flat-rate amounts set out in the Labour Code. This rule has not changed for years and forms the core of the system.
The catalogue of days off was extended in April 2023, when the EU directives on transparent and predictable working conditions and on work-life balance were implemented in the Labour Code. That is when carer's leave and time off due to force majeure were added.
Carer's leave — 5 days, but unpaid
In a calendar year an employee may use 5 days of carer's leave in order to provide personal care or support to a person who needs it for serious medical reasons. The circle of people covered includes a son, daughter, mother, father or spouse, as well as a person living in the same household as the employee.
The request is submitted on paper or electronically no later than the day before the leave begins. The employer may not refuse it or demand medical documentation of the person being cared for. For that period the employee does not retain the right to remuneration. Carer's leave does not reduce the amount of annual leave or the pool of leave on demand.
Force majeure — 2 days for an emergency, half of remuneration
Time off due to force majeure covers 2 days or 16 hours in a calendar year. It is available in urgent family matters caused by illness or an accident, where the immediate presence of the employee is necessary. Half of remuneration is due for that time. Legal basis: art. 148(1) of the Labour Code.
This is the most flexible of the entitlements: the request may be made no later than on the day the time off is used, and the employer is obliged to grant it. The employee decides whether it is settled in days or in hours in the first request of the given year. Unused days do not carry over to the next year and lapse at the end of December.
Childcare — 2 days with full remuneration
An employee raising at least one child up to 14 years of age is entitled to 2 days or 16 hours of time off in a calendar year, retaining the right to remuneration. Legal basis: art. 188 of the Labour Code.
This is the only one of the entitlements discussed here that is fully paid. The employee chooses the method of settlement — in days or in hours — in the first request submitted in the given calendar year. The entitlements are not interchangeable: an unused force majeure day cannot be turned into carer's leave, or the other way round.
Compassionate leave — 1 or 2 days, fully paid
Alongside the entitlements under the Labour Code there is the regulation of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy of 15 May 1996 on the manner of justifying absence from work and of granting employees time off work (Dz.U. 2014 poz. 1632 t.j.). Its § 15 gives 2 days off in the event of the employee's wedding, the birth of the employee's child, or the death and funeral of a spouse, child, father, mother, stepfather or stepmother.
One day is available in the event of the wedding of the employee's child or the death and funeral of the employee's sister, brother, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandmother, grandfather, as well as another person dependent on the employee or under the employee's direct care. For the duration of this time off the employee retains the right to remuneration — this follows from § 16 ust. 1 of that regulation. It is an event-based entitlement: it is not available every year, only when the indicated event occurs.
Blood donation — the day of donation and the following day
A distinguished honorary blood donor and an honorary blood donor are entitled to time off work on the day on which they donate blood and on the following day, as well as for the time of the periodic medical examination of blood donors. Legal basis: art. 9 ust. 1 pkt 1 of the Act of 22 August 1997 on the public blood service (Dz.U. 2024 poz. 1782 t.j.). The donor is also entitled to reimbursement of lost earnings on the terms following from labour law provisions, reimbursement of travel costs and a recuperative meal.
The Act sets no annual limit on such time off — it is limited by the permissible frequency of donation. According to the National Blood Centre (Narodowe Centrum Krwi), whole blood is collected no more often than 6 times a year from men and no more often than 4 times a year from women, with an interval of no less than 8 weeks. That gives up to 12 or up to 8 days off a year respectively, and it is precisely this item that raises the annual pool the most.
How much is that in total? The count for one year
Let us add up the entitlements that recur every year, in the maximum variant for a man: 26 days of annual leave with service of 10 years or more, 5 days of carer's leave, 2 days due to force majeure, 2 days of childcare for a child up to 14 years of age, and 12 days on account of six whole blood donations. That is 47 days in total. For a woman, with four donations, the same pool amounts to 43 days.
On top of that comes compassionate leave, which is not an annual entitlement but an event-based one. If in a given year there is a wedding, the birth of a child or the funeral of a close person, 1 or 2 days are added to the pool for each event — and then the annual total exceeds 50 days. There is one important caveat: this is an extreme variant. It requires all the conditions to be met at the same time — ten years of service, a child under 14, a close person requiring care and regular blood donation. The average employee uses some of these grounds, not all of them at once.
Forms of employment — what each one gives
The whole catalogue above consists of employee entitlements. An employment relationship covers the employment contract (for a probationary period, a fixed term and an indefinite term), and also appointment, election, nomination and the cooperative employment contract, as well as temporary work, where the amount of leave is counted in proportion to the period of assignment. Remote work is not a separate form of employment, only a way of performing work within an employment relationship.
A civil-law contract of mandate (umowa zlecenia) and a contract for specific work (umowa o dzieło) give no annual leave, no childcare days, no time off due to force majeure and no protection against termination under the Labour Code. The same applies to B2B cooperation: no leave, no statutory sick pay, own contributions and own tax settlement. Graduate placements, internships arranged by the labour office and voluntary work are governed by separate acts, with narrower entitlements. Compassionate leave and time off for blood donation are likewise available only to employees — not to people working under a contract of mandate, a contract for specific work or B2B.
A foreign national has exactly the same days off
Leave entitlements depend solely on the basis of employment, not on citizenship. A foreign national employed under an employment contract has the same catalogue of days off as a Polish citizen — including carer's leave and time off due to force majeure.
In practice this means that for a foreign national the choice between an employment contract and a contract of mandate or B2B is a decision not only about tax and contributions, but also about leave. At the same time, legalising residence and legalising work are independent tracks — a residence document in itself does not determine the form of employment or employee entitlements.
The name of the contract does not decide — and from 8 July 2026 even less so
The existence of an employment relationship is determined by the way work is performed, not by the title of the document: work of a specified kind, for the employer, under the employer's direction, at a designated place and time, for remuneration (art. 22 of the Labour Code). Replacing an employment contract with a civil-law contract while these conditions remain in place is not permitted.
Since 8 July 2026 the tool for enforcing this rule has been much stronger. The Act of 11 March 2026 amending the Act on the National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy) and certain other acts (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 473) gave labour inspectors the power to establish the existence of an employment relationship by way of an administrative decision. A dispute over a contract of mandate instead of employment may today end with a decision of the authority — and with it arrears in contributions and leave entitlements counted backwards.
What this means for you
- The recurring annual pool is up to 47 days for a man and 43 for a woman — the difference comes solely from the permissible number of blood donations.
- Carer's leave, force majeure and childcare days do not carry over to the next year. Outstanding annual leave does.
- Carer's leave is unpaid, force majeure is paid at half. The two childcare days are the only time off with no loss of remuneration.
- Under a contract of mandate, a contract for specific work and B2B none of these entitlements applies by operation of law — days off must follow from the content of the contract.
- For employers: review civil-law contracts against art. 22 of the Labour Code. Since July 2026 the risk is not only a labour court judgment, but also an inspector's decision.
- Citizenship is irrelevant to the number of days off — only the basis of employment matters.
- Compassionate leave is event-based — it is not available every year, but when a wedding, a birth or the funeral of a close person occurs, it is fully paid.
- A regular blood donor gains 2 days off with every donation — that is up to 12 days a year and the item that increases the pool the most.
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The content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute individual legal advice. Every administrative matter depends on its individual facts — before acting, confirm the information at the official source or consult an authorised representative.