A Labor Code amendment bill has been introduced in Parliament. The planned amendments include new provisions enabling employers to preventively control the worktime sobriety of employees. Presently, only an authorized body appointed to protect public order (e.g., the police) may carry out a sobriety test in relation to the consumption of alcohol by an employee. What are the solutions proposed by the Government in this draft bill?

1. the possibility to conduct preventive sobriety tests on employees directly by employers with the use of non-laboratory methods;
2. the possibility to conduct preventive sobriety tests on employees for intoxicants producing similar effects to alcohol;
3. the introduction into the Labor Code of the legal basis for processing sensitive personal data on the negative results of sobriety tests, without the need to obtain an employee's  consent;
4. the clear obligation to prevent an employee from working if a sobriety test reveals an unacceptable level of alcohol or intoxicants of similar effect.

Sobriety testing of employees will be possible if it is necessary to protect the life and health of employees or other people or to protect a property. An employer may conduct a sobriety test only based on relevant regulations contained in a corresponding collective labor agreement, a work regulation, or an announcement. The proposed regulations indicate that the sobriety test may be limited only to groups of employees indicated in an employer's internal regulations. An employer will have to regulate a method of conducting the sobriety tests as well as their frequency and timing.

Furthermore, an employer will be obliged to inform employees, who will be subject to sobriety testing, about its introduction at least 2 weeks before its commencement. Employees subject to sobriety tests must be informed individually by their employers before being allowed to come to work.

The Labor Code amendment bill also introduces the possibility of an analogous application of provisions on sobriety testing of persons hired on a basis other than that of an employment contract, including self-employed persons cooperating with an employer.

The proposed amendments raise many questions. For example, it is unclear what substances will be considered to be intoxicants of similar effect to alcohol. At present there is no definition or catalogue of such substances in the Polish legal system.

This bill is now going through the parliamentary process and may be changed as a result.