Workplace Bullying in Poland - New Employer Obligation Under the 2026 Anti-Mobbing Law

Workplace Bullying in Numbers: Why an Anti-Mobbing Procedure Alone Is No Longer Enough

The true scale of workplace bullying in Poland is difficult to assess. Some employees do not report inappropriate behaviour for fear of repercussions, due to a lack of trust in internal procedures or simply because they are unsure how to submit a complaint. As a result, the number of complaints filed with Poland’s National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy – PIP) or cases brought before the courts does not reflect the full extent of the problem. This limitation was also highlighted in the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) accompanying the legislative amendments.

Nevertheless, the figures cited in the RIA are revealing. According to a survey conducted by Antal and Dobra Fundacja, as many as 93% of respondents reported having experienced behaviour that could potentially be classified as workplace bullying at least once. Among those who had experienced such behaviour, 90% reported a deterioration in their mental health, 75% reported negative effects on their physical health, and 42% had taken sick leave.

The findings of inspections conducted by Poland’s National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) also provide valuable insights. While 56% of inspected employers had an anti-mobbing policy in place and 55% had established a formal complaint-handling procedure, only 23% provided employees with training on workplace bullying.

Moreover, only 19% of employees who filed complaints had previously used their employer’s internal anti-mobbing procedure. Among the main reasons for not reporting incidents internally were a lack of trust in existing procedures and fear of retaliation.

These figures highlight a significant gap between formal compliance and effective prevention – a key issue that the legislative amendments seek to address.

An organisation may have an anti-mobbing policy, documented procedures and a formal reporting mechanism in place. However, if employees do not trust the system, managers are unsure how to respond, and HR teams only turn to the procedure for the first time when a complaint is received – without being familiar with how it works in practice – it is difficult to consider such an approach effective in preventing workplace bullying.

New Definition of Mobbing in Poland in 2026 – What Is Changing?

The previous definition of mobbing under Polish labour law was complex and required employees to demonstrate that several legal conditions had been met simultaneously, making it significantly more difficult to pursue claims in court. This is reflected in data from Poland’s Ministry of Justice, which shows that although approximately 700 mobbing-related claims are brought before Polish courts each year, only 5–10% of cases result in employees’ claims being upheld, either in full or in part. One of the most challenging elements to prove was the prolonged nature of the conduct.

What Is the Difference Between Persistent and Prolonged Harassment?

Until now, the Polish Labour Code did not specify a minimum period over which inappropriate behaviour had to occur to qualify as mobbing. Polish case law emphasised the need to assess each situation individually, taking into account factors such as the intensity and frequency of the conduct.

The 2026 amendments introduce a different approach.

Under the new definition, mobbing will mean conduct involving persistent harassment of an employee, with persistence understood as harassment that is repeated, recurring or continuous.

At the same time, the legislation explicitly states that isolated incidents do not constitute mobbing, even if they infringe an employee’s personal rights.

In practice, this means that determining whether inappropriate conduct lasted five weeks, three months or six months will no longer be necessary to establish mobbing. However, an isolated conflict, an unpleasant conversation or a single instance of inappropriate behaviour will not automatically qualify as mobbing under Polish labour law.

What Types of Behaviour May Constitute Mobbing Under Poland’s New Regulations?

The amendments to the Polish Labour Code provide a non-exhaustive list of behaviours that may constitute mobbing.

Examples of Behaviour That May Constitute Mobbing Under the Amended Legislation

Examples of mobbing-related behaviour, which may occur individually or in combination, include:

1. Humiliating an employee.
2. Insulting or degrading an employee.
3. Intimidating an employee.
4. Undermining an employee’s professional competence or suitability for their role.
5. Subjecting an employee to unjustified criticism.
6. Belittling or ridiculing an employee.
7. Obstructing an employee’s ability to function effectively in the workplace – including achieving work-related objectives, performing professional duties, applying their skills and expertise, communicating with colleagues or accessing information necessary to perform their role.
8. Isolating an employee or deliberately excluding them from the team.

Such behaviour may be physical, verbal or non-verbal.

In practice, the risk of mobbing is therefore not limited to the most obvious cases of aggression or humiliation. It may also arise from systematically excluding an employee from workplace communications, publicly undermining their professional competence, isolating them from colleagues or deliberately making it difficult for them to perform their duties.

However, not every instance of inappropriate or negative behaviour will constitute mobbing. The decisive factors will be the persistent nature of the conduct and the specific circumstances of each case.

Can Criticising an Employee Constitute Mobbing?

This is a particularly important question for managers and business leaders.

The amendments to the Polish Labour Code explicitly state that justified actions towards an employee, carried out in an appropriate manner, do not constitute mobbing. This applies in particular to holding employees accountable for their work and providing legitimate criticism of their performance. Managers can therefore continue to set expectations, assess performance, enforce responsibilities, monitor task completion, address mistakes and provide constructive critical feedback.

Preventing workplace bullying must not prevent managers from managing effectively.

However, the way in which these actions are carried out will be crucial. Providing justified criticism of an employee’s work and persistently humiliating an employee are two fundamentally different situations.

This is why an effective anti-mobbing prevention strategy should include equipping managers with the skills to handle difficult conversations, set clear boundaries and hold employees accountable in a firm yet professional manner that complies with Polish labour law and respects employees’ dignity.

Who Can Be Responsible for Workplace Bullying (Mobbing)?

Workplace bullying is not necessarily carried out by a manager or supervisor. The new Polish regulations confirm that mobbing is not limited to the traditional manager–subordinate relationship.

Mobbing may be perpetrated by an employer, a manager or supervisor, a colleague at the same organisational level, a subordinate, another employee or an individual performing work under an arrangement other than an employment contract. The perpetrator may be either an individual or a group of people.

In practice, workplace bullying can be divided into three main categories:

• Downward workplace bullying – bullying by a manager or supervisor towards a subordinate.
• Upward workplace bullying – bullying by a subordinate towards their manager or supervisor.
• Horizontal workplace bullying – bullying between employees, typically colleagues at the same organisational level.

Importantly, mobbing may also involve instructing others to engage in inappropriate behaviour or encouraging them to do so. Under the amended Polish legislation, it is not necessary to prove that the perpetrator intended to subject the employee to persistent harassment.

For employers, this means adopting a much broader perspective on workplace bullying – recognising it as a risk that can arise across the entire working environment, rather than one limited to relationships between managers and their direct reports.

New Employer Obligations for Preventing Workplace Bullying in Poland

The new definition of mobbing is likely to be one of the most widely discussed aspects of the legislative amendments. From an employer’s perspective, however, an equally important – if not more significant – change concerns how businesses are expected to fulfil their obligation to prevent workplace bullying.

Employers will be required to take systematic measures to prevent mobbing. This obligation will not be limited to responding to complaints or formally adopting an anti-mobbing policy.

Employers will be expected to implement measures covering prevention, identification of inappropriate conduct, appropriate responses to reported incidents, corrective action and support for employees affected by workplace bullying.

This approach is not entirely new. Previous rulings of Poland’s Supreme Court have already emphasised employers’ responsibility to prevent mobbing, including by providing employee training, raising awareness of the risks and consequences of workplace bullying, and implementing procedures that enable such behaviour to be identified and stopped.

The amendments, however, explicitly incorporate this approach to prevention into the Polish Labour Code.

In practice, the key question will no longer simply be: “Does the employer have an anti-mobbing procedure in place?” Instead, employers will increasingly need to demonstrate that their approach works in practice by answering the following questions:

• Is the anti-mobbing system genuinely implemented and effective?
• Are employees familiar with the procedure?
• Do those responsible for receiving complaints know what steps they should take?
• Are managers equipped to respond appropriately to warning signs and concerns raised within their teams?
• Does the employer carry out and document preventive measures?

Which Employers Are Affected by Poland’s New Anti-Mobbing Regulations?

Employers with at least 10 employees will be subject to additional requirements.

They will be required to establish rules, procedures and the frequency of measures aimed at preventing violations of employees’ dignity and other personal rights, breaches of the principle of equal treatment, discrimination and workplace bullying (mobbing).

These provisions must be included in the employer’s internal work regulations or, where they are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement or internal work regulations, in a separate set of internal regulations.

If there are no workplace trade union organisations, the content of these regulations will need to be agreed with employee representatives selected in accordance with the procedures established within the organisation.

Importantly, the new provisions will also apply to persistent harassment that began before the legislation entered into force and continues beyond that date.

In practice, this means that for many employers, simply amending a few clauses in their existing anti-mobbing policy will not be enough. Businesses will need to address a number of practical questions:

1. Who is responsible for receiving complaints?
2. Who conducts internal investigations into reported incidents?
3. How is relevant documentation secured and stored?
4. What corrective or follow-up measures are taken once an investigation has been completed?
5. How frequently does the employer implement preventive measures?

How Can Employers Prepare for New Anti-Mobbing Regulations in Poland?

The biggest mistake would be to treat the new regulations as just another update to internal work regulations - a document that can simply be filed away and forgotten.

The first step should be a thorough audit of the policies, procedures and practices already in place within the organisation. This should include reviewing internal work regulations, existing anti-mobbing policies and procedures, provisions on discrimination and equal treatment, reporting mechanisms, internal investigation procedures and the way corrective and preventive actions are documented.

The next step is to assess whether the existing procedures are genuinely workable in practice. An organisation may have a well-drafted policy, but if no one knows who should interview witnesses, who is responsible for deciding whether to appoint an investigation committee or how relevant documentation should be secured once a complaint is received, the procedure fails to fulfil its primary purpose.

Employee and management training is equally important. This should not be limited to HR teams. Managers also need appropriate training, as their day-to-day decisions, the way they communicate expectations, provide feedback, hold employees accountable and respond to workplace conflicts can either increase or reduce the risk of inappropriate behaviour.

Findings from Poland’s National Labour Inspectorate (PIP), showing that only 23% of inspected employers provided workplace bullying training, highlight the significant gap between having formal anti-mobbing procedures in place and implementing effective preventive measures in practice.

Effective Workplace Bullying Prevention Under Poland’s Amended Labour Law

Having a Procedure Is Not Enough. Effective Prevention Requires a System That Works.

It is important to emphasise that the legislative amendments will not mean that every workplace conflict automatically constitutes mobbing.

Employers will continue to have the right to manage their teams, set expectations, monitor performance and provide critical feedback on employees’ work. At the same time, they will need to pay much closer attention to how their organisation prevents inappropriate behaviour and responds to early warning signs of potential problems.

Whether particular conduct constitutes mobbing will continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, taking into account both the nature of the behaviour and the employee’s individual circumstances. What is changing, however, is the emphasis the Polish legislation places on systematic, effective and demonstrable preventive measures.

This is why preparation for the new regulations should not begin with the question: “Do we have an anti-mobbing procedure in place?” Instead, employers should ask a far more important question: “Would our anti-mobbing procedure actually work if we received a complaint tomorrow?” The answer to this question should be the starting point for preparing the organisation to comply with the new requirements.

A procedure is a document. Effective workplace bullying prevention is an ongoing process that requires careful planning and consistent implementation.

Poland’s new anti-mobbing legislation should not be viewed solely in terms of additional employer obligations and potential risks. It can also serve as an opportunity to take a closer look at the organisation’s workplace culture, its mechanisms for addressing inappropriate conduct and whether employees genuinely feel that their concerns are heard and taken seriously.

Sources:

• Druk nr 2289 - Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
• RCL Rządowe Centrum Legislacji 
• Ustawa z dnia 19 czerwca 2026 r. o zmianie ustawy - Kodeks pracy oraz ustawy - Kodeks postępowania cywilnego
• To już pewne. Nowa ustawa antymobbingowa będzie lepiej chronić pracowników - Ministerstwo Rodziny, Pracy i Polityki Społecznej - Portal Gov.pl
• Większa ochrona przed mobbingiem - Ministerstwo Rodziny, Pracy i Polityki Społecznej - Portal Gov.pl
• Prezydent podpisał nowelę Kodeksu pracy wzmacniającą przepisy antymobbingowe | Serwis Samorządowy PAP