Polish labour law after the accession to the European Union

Examining the Polish labour law against the background of the Community law requires a different ap proach afer Poland’s accession to the Eropean Union than before; instead of the “approximation” of legislation, as stated in the Association Agreement of 16 December 1991, the subject of interest now (or at least the starting point for research) is the relation of our law to the European Union. It prompts one to isolate three groups of regulations within the system of labour law in Poland (and other member states), differing from each other first and foremost as far as their origin is concerned. These are: 1) Community regulations of direct application in the member states, including certain normative dispositions present in the primary legislation acts and in the ordinances (assuming that these regulations are sufficiently precise and unconditional); 2) regulations (legal acts) enacted by the legislative bodies of Poland as a member state, but whose is suing stems from the Community law (directives) and which are, to a greater or lesser extent, a fulfillment of the Comm’nity law; and 3) regulations enacted autonomically by the Polish law makers, beyond the area of the Community law’s rule. In the observations concerning all three groups of regulations, the legal situation as of 1 May 2004 will be taken into account.