Shifting the date for starting holiday leave

Isolation due to an infectious disease is one of the reasons for the justified absence of an employee from work; if it occurs prior to the starting date of holiday leave (on the day preceding this day at the latest), this automatically shifts the holiday leave to a later date without the employee having to submit an application.

Interrupting holiday leave

Employers must grant employees (at a later date) that portion of the holiday leave that is unused on account of isolation due to an infectious disease.

Isolation due to an infectious disease: what does it mean?

The notion of isolation due to an infectious disease is not defined specifically in the law. Various situations falling within the scope of this term have been enumerated in the Act on preventing and combating infections and infectious diseases in humans, namely:

• Isolation: isolation of a person or a group of persons suffering from an infectious disease or of a person or group of people suspected of having an infectious disease to impede the transmission of a biological agent causing other people to fall ill;
• isolation at home: isolation of a person suffering from an infectious disease who does not have to be hospitalised for medical reasons in his or her place of residence or temporary residence to prevent the spread of particularly dangerous or highly infectious diseases;
• quarantine: isolation of a healthy person who has been exposed to infection to prevent the spread of particularly dangerous or highly infectious diseases.

The duty of staying in isolation, isolation at home and quarantine are imposed in principle through a decision made by the relevant state sanitary inspector which constitutes evidence justifying absence from work, and consequently justifying the shift in the timing of the holiday leave or its interruption.

Quarantine without a decision

The regulation on instituting specific restrictions, orders and prohibitions in connection with an epidemic contemplates the duty of submitting to quarantine without an official legal decision being made by the sanitary inspection authority.

The timing of holiday leave will be shifted or interrupted on the basis of information provided by an employee who subject to quarantine, and an employee may convey this information by e-mail, text message or by phone.

In these cases the employee’s written declaration serves as evidence justifying his or her absence during quarantine, and thus for shifting or interrupting holiday leave. This declaration should be submitted after completing the quarantine, up to three business days after it ends.

Quarantine Period

Person obliged to submit to compulsory quarantine

14 days starting the day after crossing the border

A person who crossed the border to go to his or her place of residence or temporary residence in Poland (save for the exceptions prescribed by the regulation).

14 days starting the day after crossing the border

A household member of a person who crosses the border.

Period corresponding to the length of the household member’s quarantine up to 21 days

A household member of a person who is undergoing quarantine based on a Sanepid (sanitary epidemiological station) decision.