2025-11-22 08:25
publication
2025-11-22 08:25
The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy wants to regulate the work of interns. The draft law on internships published on Friday on the RCL website assumes, among other things, introducing a minimum monthly salary for interns or limiting the duration of the internship contract to 6 months.
The regulation authored by the Ministry of Labor repeals the applicable Act on Graduate Internships. In the justification for the project, the ministry emphasized that the applicable regulations allow for various ways of organizing internships and traineeships, and dispersed and heterogeneous legislation in this area results in the lack of uniform quality standards for internships.
The project initiator defined an internship as: “performing tasks in order to acquire knowledge, practical skills and professional experience on the basis of an agreement between the intern and the internship organizer, which is not work performed on the basis of an employment contract, appointment, election, appointment or cooperative employment contract.”
An internship is not a job for free. Minimum rates
The main assumption of the project is to introduce a ban on unpaid internships. According to the proposed regulation, the internship organizer will be obliged to pay a monthly cash benefit to the interns, set at a minimum amount of 35%. average salary in the national economy in the previous quarter. Currently, it would be approximately PLN 3,070 gross. At the same time, the amount of the monthly cash benefit could not exceed the average salary in the national economy (currently it would be approximately PLN 8,771 gross).
The minimum monthly remuneration for a minor intern was set at PLN 250. The organizer of the internship will be entitled to co-financing from the Labor Fund in the amount of PLN 250 for each full month of the internship, if the internship was completed for at least 120 hours per month.
A six-month contract and a mandatory guardian
The internship will be based on a written internship contract (which will be a type of civil law contract) concluded between the intern and the internship organizer. The internship period cannot exceed six months. This time may be extended by the time of the intern's justified absence. Moreover, the organizer will not be able to require the intern to have previous experience in the profession in which the internship will take place. The organizer will also be obliged to appoint a supervisor to supervise the intern.
The internship contract will have to include, among others: the type of tasks performed in which the intern is to gain experience and practical skills, the internship program or the organizer's obligation to ensure proper implementation of the internship in accordance with the established program.
Working time, insurance and days off
The ministry also wants the intern to be covered by compulsory social insurance, on similar terms for contractors, and by accident insurance, unless the intern chooses sickness insurance.
The project established that the working time of an intern will be no shorter than 4 hours and no longer than 8 hours a day. It is to amount to an average of 40 hours in a five-day working week in the adopted settlement period not exceeding 3 months. The internship can also be carried out part-time – at least half-time.
During the first 90 days of the internship, the intern is entitled to one day off for each 30 calendar days of the internship and 2 days off for each subsequent 30 calendar days above 90 days. If the internship is completed in an incomplete month, the number of days off the intern is entitled to is calculated proportionally, rounded up to full days.
The intern will be able to work on Sundays and holidays, at night, in shift work, if the nature and type of work require it.
Restrictions for employers and background of changes
An intern will not be able to complete an internship again with the same organizer with whom he or she previously completed an internship or was employed, “in particular as a juvenile employee” for the purpose of vocational training, if at least 24 months have not passed since the end of the previous internship or employment.
The regulation clarifies that an internship with an organizer who is an employer will be open to persons not exceeding the number of full-time employees.
In the justification, the authors of the proposed changes refer to research conducted in 2023 at the request of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. According to them, over one third of employers declaring that they offer internships provide them only free of charge, and another less than 20 percent offers paid internships only for certain offers.
Most employers offering paid internships paid salaries below PLN 1,800. About 20 percent young people participating in the study took advantage of optional internships and internships during their education or studies, and less than 18 percent used these forms after completing education.
The Act will enter into force 6 months from the date of announcement. (PAP)
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