Leave and public holiday rules in Poland

The key rules, all in one place.

Polish source checked: 6 November 2026. The following is an unofficial translation of selected provisions, not the full text of the Acts. Hyphens are written as the plain “-” character.

These provisions apply to employees covered by the Polish Labour Code. Individual leave entitlement also depends on service credited under current rules, working hours and employment history. The long weekend calculator does not determine qualifying service.

Polish Labour Code

Act of 26 June 1974 - Polish Labour Code, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2025, item 277, as amended.

Right to rest

Polish Labour Code, Article 152 § 1 and § 2

§ 1. An employee is entitled to annual, uninterrupted, paid holiday leave, hereinafter referred to as “leave”.

§ 2. An employee may not waive the right to leave.

Leave entitlement

Polish Labour Code, Article 154 § 1 and § 2

§ 1. Leave entitlement is:

1) 20 days - for employees with less than 10 years of qualifying service;

2) 26 days - for employees with at least 10 years of qualifying service.

§ 2. A part-time employee’s leave entitlement is calculated in proportion to their working hours, based on the entitlement in § 1; a fraction of a leave day is rounded up to a full day.

Leave in the year entitlement arises

Polish Labour Code, Article 161

The employer must grant leave in the calendar year in which the employee becomes entitled to it.

Splitting leave into parts

Polish Labour Code, Article 162

At the employee’s request, leave may be split into parts. In that case, at least one part of the time off should last no fewer than 14 consecutive calendar days.

Leave planning

Polish Labour Code, Article 163 § 1

Leave should be granted in accordance with a leave plan. The employer sets the plan, taking employees’ requests and the need to maintain normal operations into account. The plan does not include the portion of leave granted under Article 167².

Public holidays and working time

Polish Labour Code, Article 130 § 2

Each public holiday falling within the reference period on a day other than Sunday reduces working time by 8 hours.

Where there is no leave plan under Article 163 § 1¹, dates are set in agreement with the employee. Long weekend planning must take the company’s rules and work schedule into account.

Statutory public holidays in Poland

Act of 18 January 1951 on public holidays, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2025, item 296. The list below reproduces Article 1, points 1 and 2, without letter labels.

Article 1 - list of days off

The following are days off work:

• 1 January - New Year’s Day
• 6 January - Epiphany
• Easter Sunday
• Easter Monday
• 1 May - State Holiday
• 3 May - National Third of May Day
• Pentecost Sunday
• Corpus Christi
• 15 August - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• 1 November - All Saints’ Day
• 11 November - National Independence Day
• 24 December - Christmas Eve
• 25 December - Christmas Day
• 26 December - second day of Christmas
• Sundays.

How does the calculator apply these rules?

The calculator combines statutory public holidays with Saturdays, Sundays and your selected number of leave days. It does not assign a day off in lieu of a Saturday public holiday. It does not replace agreement with your employer. At least one part of your time off should cover 14 consecutive calendar days under Article 162.

Sources

The selected provisions are translated from official Polish texts published in the Journal of Laws and made available through the Polish Parliament’s ELI system. Publication references appear beside each Act. You can read the content without leaving Urlopy365.pl. This page covers annual leave planning and days off; it is not a complete collection of labour law. These translations are for information; the Polish statutory text is authoritative.