An RCB alert in the middle of the working day. Does your company know what to do?
Does your management board understand the risks, responsibilities and costs involved?
A phone vibrates in someone's pocket. The office falls silent. One employee thinks about their child at school, another worries about elderly parents, while someone else shrugs it off, thinking, "Not another alert." As an employer, however, you may have only minutes to make a decision.
In Poland, an alert issued by the Government Security Centre (RCB) can trigger specific employer responsibilities and significant business costs. You need to assess the warning, decide whether work should be suspended, and ensure that everyone can safely reach a designated place of safety. The employer remains responsible for these decisions even when no member of the management board is physically present at the workplace.
There is also the financial impact to consider: interrupted operations, delays in meeting client commitments, backlogs to clear and potential overtime costs. Under Polish labour law, employees who stop working because of an immediate threat to their health or safety retain their right to remuneration, provided the statutory conditions are met. Even after the alert has been lifted, it may take employees some time to regain their full concentration.
This raises an important question:
Does your management board know what an emergency alert could cost the business before the first one is issued?
An RCB alert is not simply a question of legal compliance. It is also about whether your company can protect its people while maintaining business continuity.
RCB alerts during working hours – why businesses need to be prepared
Why does this affect all of us?
With the ongoing war in Ukraine and incidents involving violations of Polish airspace, security alerts are becoming increasingly common, particularly in eastern Poland. For businesses operating in the Lublin and Podkarpackie regions, emergency preparedness is no longer just a workplace health and safety exercise. It has become a practical aspect of day-to-day business operations.
Repeated alerts can trigger very different reactions. Some employees become desensitised and stop taking warnings seriously, assuming that "nothing will happen this time either." Others experience intense anxiety and want to leave immediately to go home. Still others simply do not know whether to remain at their desks or move to a designated shelter. All these reactions are understandable. What employers cannot afford to do is leave employees without clear instructions.
The greatest risk is not necessarily the alert itself, but a lack of preparedness: conflicting instructions, no one checking whether all employees have reached a safe location, and the person responsible for making critical decisions working remotely when the alert is issued.
How an RCB alert affects employees, employers and business operations
One alert, three perspectives
- Employees ask: "Am I safe? Where should I take shelter? What about my family?" They may have children at school, elderly parents who need assistance, or loved ones in the area affected by the alert. Even if the threat does not materialise, the stress is real and can affect their ability to concentrate.
- Employers ask: "What decision should I make? Who is responsible for the people in the workplace?" Employers must quickly assess the warning, communicate with their teams and activate the emergency response plan. Employees should know who has the authority to make decisions when the employer's designated representative is not on site.
- Businesses face the question: "What happens to production, clients and deadlines?" An alert may bring machinery to a halt, delay service delivery, create backlogs and lead to additional overtime costs. It may also influence clients' decisions when choosing a business location or service provider.
These three perspectives do not have to conflict. A well-designed emergency response procedure protects employees while minimising disruption and its impact on business operations.
What an RCB alert means and how to assess the level of threat
Not all alerts mean the same thing
An RCB alert should neither be ignored nor automatically treated as an instruction to evacuate the building. What matters is the content of the warning, instructions from the relevant authorities, the location of the threat and whether a designated shelter can be reached safely.
The appropriate response depends on several factors: the exact wording of the alert, recommendations issued by the relevant Polish authorities and emergency services, the area affected, the type of warning issued, whether it is safe to reach a shelter, and the specific characteristics of the building and the company's operations.
In practice, it is useful to distinguish between three scenarios:
- Warning of a potential threat: Monitor official announcements, inform employees and continue operations with heightened awareness.
- Immediate threat or instruction to take shelter: Suspend work, move to a pre-designated place of safety and check that everyone is accounted for.
- All-clear announcement: Confirm that it is safe to resume normal activities, decide when work can restart and conduct a brief review of the response.
Important safety consideration: Standard fire evacuation procedures may not always be appropriate. Evacuating everyone outdoors when the safest course of action is to take shelter could put employees at greater risk.
The company's emergency response procedure should therefore clearly distinguish between four actions: evacuating the building, moving to a designated shelter within the building, reaching an external shelter, and remaining in the safest available part of the premises.
RCB alerts and employers' obligations under the Polish Labour Code
What does Polish law say?
The Polish Labour Code does not specifically regulate every type of RCB alert, but the fundamental principle is clear: employers are responsible for protecting the health and safety of employees in the workplace.
Employers must inform employees about potential hazards, designate appropriately trained personnel and provide clear instructions on how to stop work and move to a safe location. In the event of an immediate threat to health or safety, employers must suspend work and must not instruct employees to resume their duties until the danger has passed.
Employees, in turn, have the right to stop working if they face an immediate threat to their health or safety. They must immediately notify their supervisor and, provided the statutory conditions are met, retain their right to remuneration. However, not every RCB alert indicates an immediate threat or gives employees the right to leave work without authorisation. The specific content of the warning must always be assessed.
Where employees of different employers work in the same building or workplace, the companies concerned must cooperate, exchange information about potential hazards and agree on coordinated safety procedures. However, appointing a health and safety coordinator does not relieve any employer of its legal responsibility for its own employees.
Legal basis: Articles 207, 207¹, 208, 209¹–209³, 210 and 211 of the Polish Labour Code (Kodeks pracy).
RCB Alert Response Procedure – what should it include?
Improvisation is the worst possible plan
When every minute counts, there is no time to ask questions such as "Who has the keys?", "Is the underground car park accessible?" or "Who is authorised to make decisions?" This is why every company needs a dedicated procedure for responding to airborne threats. Standard fire evacuation instructions alone are not enough.
An effective emergency response procedure should address several key issues in advance.
Official sources of information about threats
The primary sources of information should include the RCB alert itself, official announcements from the Government Security Centre (RCB), the Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA), the relevant Voivodeship Office (regional government administration) and local crisis management centre, as well as emergency warning signals, public address announcements, instructions from the relevant authorities and emergency services, and information provided by the building management.
Social media reports and messages from friends are no substitute for official information. This should be communicated clearly to all employees.
People responsible for emergency response during an RCB alert
Appointing just one responsible person is not enough. The procedure must account for annual leave, business trips, different working hours and hybrid working arrangements. For each business location, it is advisable to designate:
- A person responsible for coordinating the on-site emergency response, together with at least one deputy.
- Individuals responsible for specific areas or floors (in larger organisations).
- A person responsible for monitoring official announcements and warnings.
- A person responsible for accounting for employees, visitors and subcontractors.
- A person responsible for maintaining contact with the employer's designated representative.
- Personnel trained in first aid.
Important: Simply listing names in the procedure is not sufficient. The company must also know which designated individuals are actually present at the workplace on any given day.
Who makes decisions when the management board is absent?
The business owner, a member of the management board or a health and safety officer may not always be on site. The emergency procedure should clearly establish who takes charge in their absence, which decisions that person is authorised to make independently, whom they should contact and how, what action to take if communication is impossible, and who has the authority to approve the resumption of work.
Employee safety must not depend on whether a director answers the phone.
How to choose a safe location or shelter
In cooperation with the building manager, employers should verify whether a suitable shelter is available within or near the premises and whether it has sufficient capacity to accommodate everyone.
Key questions include: Is the shelter accessible during working hours? How long does it take to reach it? Does reaching it require going outdoors? Is there an alternative safe location? How will employees with reduced mobility be assisted? How will the company confirm that everyone has reached safety?
Simply identifying a "basement" or "underground car park" as a shelter is not enough without verifying its accessibility and capacity.
Communication with employees and clients during an alert
Establish who is responsible for issuing emergency instructions and which communication channels will be used. Determine who will notify employees working off site and what alternative communication methods will be available if email or messaging platforms fail.
The procedure should also specify who contacts the building management and who informs clients about potential delays or disruptions.
Emergency messages should be brief, calm and unambiguous.
Emergency response training and drills
Employees should know who is responsible for coordinating the emergency response, what different warnings and announcements mean, where the designated safe location is and how to reach it.
They should also understand how to confirm their presence, assist people who need support, report a threat and avoid actions that could put themselves or others at risk during an alert.
Emergency drills do not have to be complicated. Their purpose is to verify that designated personnel are available, employees understand emergency instructions, and moving to a safe location is practical and achievable under real working conditions.
How much can an RCB alert and work interruption cost a business?
What is the financial impact?
The cost of an RCB alert goes far beyond paying employees for an hour of interrupted work. Businesses may also face operational downtime, delays, overtime costs and potential contractual penalties. In the longer term, the consequences may include increased absenteeism, more errors, employee turnover and loss of client trust.
These costs can be divided into three categories:
- Direct costs: Employee remuneration during work interruptions, including employer social security contributions and other employment-related costs; developing emergency response procedures; time spent on training and emergency response drills; safety equipment and signage; and management time devoted to handling the incident.
- Operational costs: Machinery or production line shutdowns, interrupted customer service, delayed orders, disrupted work schedules, restarting operations, overtime, and the risk of missed deadlines or failure to meet service level agreements (SLAs).
- Long-term costs: Employee absenteeism, reduced concentration, increased errors, deterioration in employee mental well-being, staff turnover, loss of client trust, clients choosing suppliers in other locations, and additional investment in business continuity measures.
To illustrate the potential impact on labour costs alone, we have calculated a model scenario based on a one-hour work interruption per alert, assuming four alerts per month in the Lublin Voivodeship and two in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship (both in eastern Poland).
The calculation assumes an average of 167.3 working hours per month and an additional 20.5% in employer-related employment costs.
Voivoddeship | Monthly cost | Monthly cost | Monthly cost | Monthly cost |
| Lublin | PLN 232.21 | PLN 11,611 | PLN 23,221 | PLN 46,443 |
| Podkarpackie | PLN 114.92 | PLN 5,746 | PLN 11,492 | PLN 22,983 |
A company employing 200 people in the Lublin Voivodeship would therefore incur an estimated cost of PLN 46,400 per month, equivalent to approximately PLN 557,000 annually, assuming the same frequency of alerts throughout the year.
In the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, the estimated cost would be approximately PLN 23,000 per month, or PLN 276,000 annually.
The calculation is straightforward:
number of employees × hourly employment cost to the employer × number of alerts × duration of each alert
In this model, costs increase proportionally: doubling the number of employees, alerts or minutes of interrupted work doubles the estimated cost. However, the overall business impact may grow even faster. Each additional interruption can lead to accumulating backlogs, overtime, missed deadlines, contractual penalties or even lost clients.
What matters, therefore, is not only the duration of each alert but also how frequently alerts occur and how quickly the company can restore normal operations.
These figures are illustrative estimates, not forecasts. Importantly, they do not account for material losses, machinery restart costs, overtime, contractual penalties, lost sales or psychological support for employees. The actual financial impact on a business could therefore be significantly higher.
RCB alerts as part of a company's business continuity plan
An airborne threat alert should be incorporated into the company's business continuity plan, just like a power outage, IT system failure or fire.
It is important to establish in advance:
- Which processes must be stopped immediately and which can be shut down in a controlled manner.
- Which activities can safely continue.
- How long it takes to shut down and restart equipment.
- Which client commitments are time-critical and who is responsible for communicating any delays.
- Whether employees can switch to remote working after the alert.
- Which roles require backup personnel.
- Whether data and IT systems can be accessed from an alternative location.
- How the company will continue operating if the building remains inaccessible.
- How operational backlogs will be cleared.
Inaczej wygląda to w biurze rachunkowym, a inaczej w fabryce, magazynie czy placówce medycznej. Dlatego procedura skopiowana od kogoś innego się nie sprawdzi.
The challenges faced by an accounting firm will differ significantly from those of a manufacturing plant, warehouse or healthcare facility. This is why a generic, off-the-shelf emergency response procedure is unlikely to be effective. Each company needs a plan tailored to its specific operations, risks and business continuity requirements.
How to reduce employee stress after an emergency alert
Stress that doesn't show up in Excel
Operational downtime can be measured. Prolonged stress is much harder to quantify. People react differently: some downplay the situation as a way of coping with anxiety, while others worry about their loved ones. Neither reaction has anything to do with a lack of professionalism.
The most effective approach is calm, clear communication based on official sources and delivered by one designated person, without exaggerating or dismissing the threat. Once the alert has been lifted, employers should not expect employees to immediately return to full productivity. Sometimes, someone may need a few minutes to call their family and regain their composure.
It is worth considering a short break after the alert, a conversation with a supervisor, flexible working arrangements, access to psychological counselling and crisis communication training for managers. These are not merely measures to enhance the company's image. An overstressed team is more likely to make mistakes and will be less prepared to cope with another emergency.
RCB alerts in the workplace – an employer's checklist
Before the alert | During the alert | After the all-clear |
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How to prepare your business for an RCB alert – key takeaways
People come first – their lives, health and sense of safety. However, responsible business management also means recognising that emergency alerts can lead to operational downtime, additional costs and risks to client relationships.
The question is no longer, "Should we prepare?"
The real question is: Will our procedures actually work when a real threat arises?
Do your company's emergency response procedures clearly define who makes decisions and how to protect employees during a threat?
At PKF BPO, we help organisations review and streamline their emergency response procedures, clarify responsibilities and improve internal communication. Contact us to discuss how we can support your business.