Who can benefit from the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund and when?

For the purposes of this Act, specific instances of insolvency have been described in detail. It may therefore turn out that a company in liquidation does not fall within the scope of the cases provided for therein. As noted in the literature, “The list of grounds for insolvency is exhaustive – circumstances other than those specified in the provisions cited above do not provide grounds for satisfying employees’ claims from the FGŚP, even if they are similar in nature and are accompanied by a lack of funds to pay employees’ wages” (M. Latos-Miłkowska, 12.3. GROUNDS FOR EMPLOYER INSOLVENCY [in:] Labour Law System. Volume III. Individual Labour Law. Detailed Part., ed. K. W. Baran, M. Gersdorf, K. Rączka, Warsaw 2021.)

The Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund

There is also the issue of the list of employee claims covered by the Fund, which is described in detail in Article 12 of the Act. An example is a claim for payment of wages; however, this applies to wages for a period not exceeding three months immediately preceding the date of the employer’s insolvency.

Another option is to apply Article 12a of the Act, under which an employee may submit an application to the Marshal of the province for the payment of an advance against claims not satisfied by the employer due to a lack of funds in connection with the employer’s actual cessation of business. The amount of the advance payment is the sum of the unsatisfied claims referred to in Article 12(2) (including, inter alia, unsatisfied principal claims for remuneration for work), but not exceeding the minimum wage, determined on the basis of separate regulations, in force on the date of submission of the application for payment of the advance. Article 12a(2) sets out the conditions which must be met cumulatively for the employer to have effectively ceased operations:

1. the employer did not conduct business activities and did not derive any income therefrom, excluding the suspension of business activities disclosed in the relevant registers or the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity;
2. the employer was not present at the registered office or at the places where business was carried out, despite an entry in the relevant registers or the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity, or the employer’s registered office was struck off the relevant registers ex officio;
3. the employer failed to fulfil obligations towards employees, the Social Insurance Institution, tax authorities and registration authorities relating to employees’ entitlements arising from generally applicable regulations;

-for a period exceeding 2 months.

Another significant benefit for employees is the possibility of applying for severance pay from the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund (FGŚP) in the event of collective redundancies, should it transpire that the company lacks the funds to pay it (in accordance with Article 12(2)(d) of the Act).

Would you like to find out how to receive a benefit from the FGŚP? Or perhaps you are simply interested in issues such as the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund? In that case, please make use of the services of HWW Hewelt Wojnowski Lindner i Wspólnicy.