Private employment as help for refugees from Ukraine

NEWS DATED:20/03/2022 By KS Service sp. Z oo in Poland......................................................................................... Private employment can be an effective form of assistance offered to refugees from Ukraine. The problem, however, is that currently reporting to social insurance and settling contributions and income tax is so complicated and inaccessible that it effectively discourages people from offering legal employment. It is especially ineffective for small tasks, such as babysitting or helping with cleaning. What is the matter of the aid offered to war refugees from Ukraine and their presence on the Polish labor market today? In general, legislative work on the Act of 12 March 2022 on helping Ukrainian citizens in connection with an armed conflict in that country (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 583, hereinafter referred to as the Ukrainian special act) lasted only a week. As a result, the act entered into force on March 12 this year, with retroactive effect from February 24, 2022. The Ukrainian special law, apart from issues related to the legalization of the stay of Ukrainian war refugees, also provides for a number of facilitations (related to, for example, access to the labor market), as well as material support (for example, access to the 500+ program and a one-time allowance in the amount of PLN 300). Financial assistance is also provided for those people who have taken in war refugees from Ukraine. The government, however, does not rule out an amendment to the recently enacted regulations, and experts have already indicated the areas that should be covered by this amendment. So what changes do the experts suggest in the Ukrainian special act? As emphasized by Dr. Tomasz Lasocki from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, the provisions on social security are secondary to the rules governing the labor market, hence it was concluded that providing access to it exempts the need to adjust insurance regulations. However, the problem is that the reporting and settlement of public levies (i.e. social security, health and income tax contributions) is so complicated and inaccessible that it effectively discourages people from offering legal work, especially with regard to minor activities, such as cleaning or also care. Read Inflexible Wage Supplements Doctor Antoni Kolek from Employers of Poland is of a similar opinion, emphasizing that even today foreigners (and not only them) who perform simple works related to the construction industry or taking care of the house are in the gray zone. Meanwhile, the influx of refugees from Ukraine may worsen the situation even more. According to Dr. Tomasz Lasocki, we are currently dealing with hundreds of thousands of people who are not aware of their rights. And even if they are knowledgeable about it, they are unable to stand up for their rights. Hence, it would be definitely important to adapt the tax-contribution system to new challenges, which was additionally complicated by the entry into force of the tax reform under the name of the Polish Deal from 1 January this year. A priority for simplification should be to facilitate access to the social security system, especially as regards accounting and reporting. According to Dr. Tomasz Lasocki, it should be expected that some people will certainly want to help war fugitives through private employment, i.e. outside of economic activity. Unfortunately, however, the Polish tax system charges such people twice, so it is definitely worth doing it with the help of an accountant. Generally, the payment for activities under private employment will probably go from hand to hand, which, without simplification, may become a standard. So what to do to enable the legalization of private employment? According to Dr. Antoni Kolek, it would be worth considering the introduction of temporary solutions that would simplify as much as possible all formalities related to offering refugees legal employment. On the other hand, Dr. Tomasz Lasocki is in favor of introducing systemic solutions. In his opinion, work on the new generation of the Electronic Services Platform (ie the so-called PUE 2.0) should proceed as soon as possible. In the new version of this platform, the employer, by providing the amount of remuneration and some other basic information, should be able to quickly and efficiently settle both the basic employment contract and the civil law contract, without the need to have a doctorate in social security, which is still insufficient today. Read the Official Foreign Language Certificate in a new language The new system must cover both insurance premiums and taxes, linking the information provided with data from other payers. In this way, everyone should be able to settle, for example, a cleaning contract for PLN 200. In general, experts have been calling for such changes and simplifications for a long time, but now this issue should be settled very quickly, within a maximum of 2 months from the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, after providing access to basic services, such as accommodation or access to health care. It is also important that this simplification would benefit everyone, not only refugees from Ukraine. Generally, many people may, instead of an employment contract, sign specific work contracts or be encouraged to set up a business. This is happening now in the case of Polish citizens, let alone foreigners. Meanwhile, both must be aware that by using such solutions as, for example, start-up relief, they deprive themselves and their relatives of protection, even in the event of an accident at work. In addition, they must have a good understanding of the provisions introduced by the Polish Order to avoid this year's pitfalls in this regard. The problem, however, is that in order to assess these effects, you need to correctly forecast both your revenues and your income. Therefore, if we do nothing in the context of simplifying the regulations, then most likely foreigners from Ukraine will help our labor market and economy, but at the expense of their own social and health security. So, pretending that there is no problem, we will be accused in the future of the exploitation of people looking for security in Poland. To sum up, it is good that the aid provisions under the Ukrainian special act were passed so quickly and have already entered into force. First of all, it was necessary to secure both the legalization of the stay of war refugees from Ukraine and their basic needs. However, already now we should think intensively about changes and simplification of regulations, especially in the field of social security, so that the legal employment of people from beyond our eastern border is not so difficult and complicated. Otherwise, we will be dealing with an rapidly growing gray area in employment in this respect.