Can my employer send me on compulsory leave?

Author: inspekcja-pracy.pl editorial teamChecked: 15 October 2026

Short answer

It depends on which leave is involved. The employer grants current leave according to the leave plan, and where there is no plan, it sets the date after agreeing it with you (Article 163 of the Labour Code, Kodeks pracy). Beyond that, the Code does not give it the right to send you unilaterally on leave from the current year. Two situations are different. The employer must grant outstanding leave by 30 September of the following year at the latest (Article 168 of the Labour Code), and the Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy, SN) has held that it does not need your consent for this. During a notice period, you must use your leave if the employer grants it (Article 167(1) of the Labour Code). When the employer has no work for you, this is usually downtime paid under Article 81 of the Labour Code, not leave.

In this guide: When the employer can set your leave without your consent: leave plan, outstanding leave by 30 September, notice period. How downtime differs from leave.

Who this applies to

Employees with an employment contract (umowa o pracę) and employers. Under a contract of mandate (umowa zlecenia) and B2B there is no annual leave under the Labour Code, so there is no "sending on leave" either. Whether a contractor is entitled to a paid break depends on the contract.

What to do

Establish which year the leave is from. Current leave is leave for the year you are in. Outstanding leave is days from previous years that you did not use. Check this in your leave record or in the HR system.
Current leave: check the leave plan. The employer draws up the plan, taking into account employees' requests and the need to ensure the normal course of work. The plan is announced in the way customary in the company (Article 163 § 1 and 2 of the Labour Code). If there is no plan, the leave date is set after agreement with you (Article 163 § 1(1)). An instruction such as "from tomorrow you are on a week's leave" without a plan and without agreement has no basis in these provisions.
Outstanding leave: check the deadline. Leave not used by the date in the plan must be granted by 30 September of the following calendar year at the latest (Article 168 of the Labour Code). In its judgment of 24.01.2006 (I PK 124/05), the Supreme Court held that granting outstanding leave on this basis does not require the employee's consent, and the employee may not refuse to use leave granted in accordance with the provisions. The judgment concerned an earlier wording of Article 168, when the deadline expired at the end of the first quarter, but its reasoning applies to the same mechanism.
Notice period. If the employer grants you leave during the notice period, you are obliged to use it. Current leave may then amount to at most the entitlement proportional to the period worked in the year the contract ends. The employer may grant outstanding leave in full (Articles 167(1) and 155(1) of the Labour Code). The provision does not distinguish who gave notice. You will not receive payment in lieu for days used during the notice period. More: Payment in lieu of unused leave: when you are entitled to it, how to calculate it and when it must be paid.
Postponement and recall. The employer may postpone your leave because of special needs, if your absence would cause serious disruption to the course of work (Article 164 § 2 of the Labour Code). It may recall you from leave only in circumstances that were unforeseeable when the leave began, and it must cover your costs (Article 167 of the Labour Code).
Lack of work is not leave. If you are ready to work and the employer cannot give you work for reasons on its side (no orders, a breakdown, a branch closing), you are entitled to pay for the time not worked under Article 81 § 1 of the Labour Code. For that time the employer may also assign you other suitable work (Article 81 § 3).
Do not agree to "unpaid leave" under pressure. The employer may grant unpaid leave only at your request, in paper or electronic form (Article 174 § 1 of the Labour Code). The period of such leave is not counted towards the period of employment on which employee entitlements depend (Article 174 § 2).
Ask in writing for the legal basis. Ask the employer to state whether this is leave under the plan, outstanding leave, leave during the notice period or downtime. Then check your payslip. If the employer has recorded leave where there was downtime, or has not paid for the downtime, you can file a complaint with the National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy, PIP) (complaint generator) or claim payment in court. See also Your employer did not pay your wages on time. What can you do?.

Downtime and "postojowe"

The Labour Code does not use the word "postojowe" (downtime pay). Colloquially, this is the name for pay for downtime (przestój) under Article 81 of the Labour Code. The rules:

it is due when you were ready to work and the obstacles resulted from reasons concerning the employer,
it amounts to the pay under your personal grading (hourly or monthly rate), and where no such component has been specified, 60% of pay,
in any case it may not be lower than the minimum wage, which in 2026 is PLN 4,806,
it is not due if the downtime occurred through your fault (Article 81 § 2).

Exceptions and caveats

Outstanding leave after 30 September. The deadline in Article 168 of the Labour Code is the employer's obligation. The Code does not provide that leave is lost after that date. An employee may not waive the right to leave (Article 152 § 2 of the Labour Code). Failing to grant leave to which an employee is entitled is a petty offence by the employer under Article 282 § 1(2) of the Labour Code (fine of PLN 2,000 to PLN 60,000).
Leave on demand. The part of leave used on demand is covered neither by the leave plan nor by the deadline in Article 168 (Article 163 § 1, Article 168 of the Labour Code). See Can an employer refuse leave on demand?.
Illness. If you fall ill before your leave, the employer must postpone the leave to a later date (Article 165 of the Labour Code). The part of leave not used because of illness is granted at another time (Article 166 of the Labour Code).
No plan and current leave. The fact that the employer cannot unilaterally send you on current leave outside the plan follows from Article 163 of the Labour Code. The statute does not contain a sentence that says so explicitly. If the dispute concerns money or a penalty, use free advice from the PIP.
Employers: you must grant outstanding leave from the previous year by 30 September. When there is not enough work, consider downtime under Article 81 of the Labour Code and pay for it. Replacing downtime with leave without a basis in Article 163 or 168 of the Labour Code exposes you to a charge of breaching the provisions on leave.

Example

Assumptions: a full-time employee has 5 days of outstanding leave from 2025 and 10 days of leave for 2026. There is no leave plan in the company. On 15 October 2026 his supervisor tells him not to come in for two weeks from tomorrow because there are no orders, and that this time "will come out of his leave".

The employer should have granted the outstanding leave from 2025 by 30 September 2026. The deadline has passed, but the leave has not been lost. According to judgment I PK 124/05, granting outstanding leave does not require the employee's consent, so the employer may set those 5 days, and should do so without further delay. It may not count the remaining days as current leave without agreement, because there is no leave plan (Article 163 § 1(1) of the Labour Code). For that time, if the employee is ready to work, he is entitled to downtime pay under Article 81 of the Labour Code.

Documents and deadlines

What	Deadline or rule	Legal basis
Current leave	according to the leave plan or after agreement	Article 163 § 1 and § 1(1) of the Labour Code
Outstanding leave	by 30 September of the following year at the latest	Article 168 of the Labour Code
Leave during the notice period	obligation to use it if the employer grants it	Article 167(1) of the Labour Code
Unpaid leave	only at the employee's request	Article 174 § 1 of the Labour Code
Downtime	pay under Article 81, not less than the minimum wage	Article 81 § 1 of the Labour Code
Evidence	leave record, leave plan, written instructions, payslips

Frequently asked questions

Can the employer send the whole company on leave over the holiday period?

It can plan this in the leave plan, taking employees' requests into account (Article 163 § 1 of the Labour Code). Where there is no plan, the date is set after agreement with each employee.

Can I refuse outstanding leave set by the employer?

According to the Supreme Court, an employee may not refuse to use leave granted in accordance with the provisions, and granting outstanding leave does not require the employee's consent (I PK 124/05).

My employer told me to stay at home and is not paying me. What should I do?

If you were ready to work and the obstacle was on the employer's side, you are entitled to pay under Article 81 of the Labour Code. Send the employer a demand for payment (wezwanie do zapłaty). The guide How do you prepare a demand for payment of outstanding wages? will help you with this.

Useful tools

PIP complaint generator

Related guides

Sources (documents in Polish)

Sources checked on 15 October 2026. Law as at 15 October 2026.

Change history

15 October 2026: First publication.

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This guide is for information only. The current legal provisions and the information of the National Labour Inspectorate apply. An independent information website. We are not the National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy).