Employment certificate — when the employer must issue it and how to correct an error

Is your employment contract ending? Your employer must give you an employment certificate (świadectwo pracy) on the day the contract ends — not later and not “once you have settled up”. It is the document you show to your next employer, at the labour office or at ZUS. Here is when you will get it, what it should contain and what to do if it contains an error.

When the employer must issue the employment certificate

The rule is simple: you receive the employment certificate on the day your employment relationship ends — regardless of who terminated the contract and why it ended (Art. 97 § 1 of the Labour Code).

• If, for objective reasons, it cannot be handed to you that day (e.g. you are on sick leave or have left the country), the employer has 7 days to send it by post or deliver it in another way.
• The employer may not withhold the certificate until you return work clothes, keys or tools, or “settle up” in any other way (Art. 97 § 1³).
• Exception: if within 7 days you sign another employment contract with the same employer, you receive the certificate only at your request (on paper or electronically). You may submit the request at any time, and the employer then has 7 days to issue the document (Art. 97 § 1¹ and § 1²).

What the employment certificate contains

The employment certificate includes, among other things (Art. 97 § 2):

• the period of employment, the type of work performed and the positions held,
• how the contract was terminated (e.g. notice given by the employer, mutual agreement) or the circumstances in which it expired,
• information needed to establish your employee and social insurance rights — e.g. about the annual leave you have used,
• a note about any seizure of your wages by a bailiff (komornik), if there was one.

At your request, the employer will also state the amount and components of your pay and the qualifications you obtained. The employment certificate is not a reference — it does not assess how you worked.

An error in the certificate — 14 days to request a correction

Check the certificate as soon as you receive it: dates, position, how the contract was terminated, number of leave days.

1. You have 14 days from receiving the certificate to submit a request to the employer to correct it (sprostowanie) (Art. 97 § 2¹).
2. If the employer refuses, you have another 14 days from being notified of the refusal to file a claim for correction with the labour court (sąd pracy).
3. If the employer does not respond to your request at all, you also file the claim for correction with the labour court.

In a dispute about disciplinary dismissal an additional rule applies: if the labour court finds that terminating your contract without notice through your fault breached the law, the employer must state in the certificate that the contract was terminated with notice given by the employer (Art. 97 § 3).

The employer did not issue the certificate — what you can do

• You can file a claim with the labour court to oblige the employer to issue the employment certificate (Art. 97¹ § 1).
• If the company no longer exists, you can ask the court to establish your right to an employment certificate (Art. 97¹ § 2).
• These claims become time-barred after 3 years from the date they became due (Art. 97¹ § 3 in conjunction with Art. 291 § 1).
• If you could not start work because the certificate was missing or wrong, you can claim compensation equal to your pay for the time you remained without work for that reason — for up to 6 weeks (Art. 99).
• You can also report the matter to the National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy, PIP). For failing to issue an employment certificate on time, the employer faces a fine from PLN 2,000 to PLN 60,000 (Art. 282 § 1 point 3).

What this means for you

If you are an employee:

• On your last day of work, ask for your employment certificate. If you will not be there, give the employer your current postal address.
• Read the certificate straight away — the deadline to request a correction is only 14 days.
• Keep the original. You will need it at your next job (leave entitlement, notice period), at the labour office and when your pension is calculated.
• If you are a foreigner, ask someone who knows Polish to help you understand the document before the correction deadline passes.

If you are an employer:

• Prepare the certificate in advance so that you can hand it over on the last day of the contract. If it cannot be handed over, send it within 7 days.
• Do not make issuing the certificate conditional on returning equipment or clothing — this breaches Art. 97 § 1³.
• If you sign another contract with the same employee within 7 days, issue the certificate at the employee’s request, within 7 days of receiving it.

Legal basis: Act of 26 June 1974 — Labour Code (Kodeks pracy, consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1245), Art. 97, 97¹, 99, 282 § 1 point 3 (as worded by the Act of 11 March 2026, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 473), Art. 291 § 1. Legal status as of 1 October 2026.