The largest employers are on the final straight in terms of implementing the Employee Capital Programmes (PPK). Entities employing at least 250 people (as at 31 December 2018) will be required to apply the Act on Employee Capital Programmes from 1 July 2019.
    Meanwhile, the Act is being amended, even before it has started to apply for good. The Sejm has enacted the government bill on the amendment to the Act on employee capital programmes (about which we wrote here), which, among other things, lifts the limit of 30 times the basis of payments to the PPK and introduces several simplifications into the PPK system.
    According to the bill, lifting the limit of 30 times the average monthly salary is supposed to contribute to the minimization of the future risk of making contributions at the wrong amount, as well as making undue contributions (e.g. if the annual basis of the level of pension and disability contributions is exceeded by a person employed by several entities). The lifting of the limit emphasizes the voluntary nature of the PPK system and the fact that it is separate from the insurance system, which has such a limit. However, it should be borne in mind that, in practice, this means the obligation to calculate and collect contributions for the PPK on the whole of the salary of the employees, which can mean higher costs.
    The next amendment that should interest both employers and employees is the increase in the list of employees, in the meaning of the Act on PPK, to include people on upbringing leave or people collecting maternity benefit. This amendment means that employers will no longer be required to conclude contracts on handling PPK at various times as a result of individual people returning to work from leave related to parenthood. Instead, the employer will be required to conclude one contract at a specified time on running the PPK for all employees who have not withdrawn from making contributions to the PPK.
    Interestingly, while actually appearing to be a simplification for employers, this amendment may not be as advantageous for employees as it seems. This is because it arises from the analysis of the changes that employees who are on maternity or upbringing leave will not be entitled to a welcome payment of PLN 250 – only those employees who are participants of the PPK for at least 3 full months and make payments financed by them during that time to their PPK accounts will receive such a payment. This category does not include people on leave related to parenthood, who are paid from the Social Insurance Institution’s funds.
    It is worth mentioning one more practical change involving the standardization of the timing of payments from salaries. The amendment assumes that all employees will be required to make payments from their salaries by the 15th day of the month following the month in which they were calculated and collected regardless of whether or not the salary is paid in those periods (the current wording of the Act assumes that the payments may be made by the last day of the month if wages are paid in periods which are shorter than a month).

    The bill is to become effective 14 days after its announcement. It would now be worth following the legal changes in the Act and intensifying preparations for the new savings system.