Poland public holidays 2026: dates, pay rules & employer guide
Key takeaways
- Poland has 14 statutory public holidays (dni wolne od pracy) in 2026 under the Act of 18 January 1951 on Public Holidays, as consolidated in the Sejm Marshals’ Notice of 6 March 2025 (Dz.U. 2025, poz. 296).
- Only 10 of these generate effective working-time reductions: 4 holidays fall on Sundays (Easter Sunday, Constitution Day, Pentecost, All Saints' Day) and carry no substitute entitlement under Article 130 §2 of the Labour Code.
- Two holidays fall on Saturdays in 2026 — 15 August and 26 December — triggering a mandatory substitute day-off obligation for every employer within the same settlement period.
- Christmas Eve (24 December) became a statutory holiday on 1 January 2025, added by the Act of 6 December 2024 (Dz.U. 2024, poz. 1965). Any payroll or HR system showing fewer than 14 Polish holidays is out of date.
Key facts at a glance
| Topic | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total statutory public holidays | 14 |
| Effective working-time reductions (weekday + Saturday) | 10 |
| Holidays falling on Sundays (no substitute entitlement) | 4 (Easter Sunday, Constitution Day, Pentecost, All Saints' Day) |
| Holidays falling on Saturdays (substitute day off required) | 2 (15 Aug, 26 Dec) |
| Mandatory non-working day for all employees | Yes, all 14 holidays |
| Regional / local holiday variation | No, single national list |
| Sunday transfer rule (automatic bank-in-lieu) | No, Sunday holidays absorbed |
| Pay for working on a holiday | Substitute day off first; 100% supplement if day off not possible |
| Christmas Eve (24 Dec) as a statutory holiday | Yes, since 1 Jan 2025 |
| Governing legislation | Act of 18 Jan 1951 on Public Holidays; Labour Code (Kodeks pracy) |
| Enforcement authority | State Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy) |
Introduction
Poland operates one of the simplest public holiday structures in the Jackson & Frank network: a single national list of 14 statutory days, uniformly applied across all 16 voivodeships, with no regional tiers, no cascade systems, and no local additions. The headline complexity for 2026 is the Saturday rule: two holidays land on Saturdays, triggering a mandatory substitute day-off obligation for every employer, and the still-new Christmas Eve holiday, added to the statutory list only in December 2024.
This guide covers every date, the employer obligations that attach to each category, the Labour Code provisions that govern pay and time-off, and the compliance points international employers most frequently miss when managing Polish headcount for the first time.
Public holidays in Poland 2026
The table below lists all 14 statutory holidays under the Act of 18 January 1951 on Public Holidays (Ustawa o dniach wolnych od pracy), as most recently consolidated in the Sejm Marshals’ Notice of 6 March 2025 (Dz.U. 2025, poz. 296), incorporating the Christmas Eve amendment enacted 6 December 2024 (Dz.U. 2024, poz. 1965).
Weekend rows: Highlighted rows in amber fall on Saturdays and trigger a mandatory substitute day off within the settlement period. Rows in a lighter shade fall on Sundays; these are absorbed under Polish law with no substitute entitlement.
| Date | Day | English Name | Polish Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | Thursday | New Year's Day / Solemnity of Mary | Nowy Rok / Uroczystość Świętej Bożej Rodzicielki | |
| 6 January | Tuesday | Epiphany (Three Kings Day) | Święto Trzech Króli | |
| 5 April | Sunday | Easter Sunday | Wielkanoc (Pierwszy Dzień) | Always Sunday, no substitute |
| 6 April | Monday | Easter Monday | Poniedziałek Wielkanocny | |
| 1 May | Friday | Labour Day (State Holiday) | Święto Pracy | |
| 3 May | Sunday | Constitution Day | Święto Konstytucji 3 Maja | Falls Sunday, no substitute |
| 24 May | Sunday | Pentecost (Whit Sunday) | Zielone Świątki | Always Sunday, no substitute |
| 4 June | Thursday | Corpus Christi | Boże Ciało | |
| 15 August | Saturday | Armed Forces Day / Assumption Day | Święto Wojska Polskiego / Wniebowzięcie NMP | Saturday: substitute day off required |
| 1 November | Sunday | All Saints' Day | Wszystkich Świętych | Falls Sunday, no substitute |
| 11 November | Wednesday | Independence Day | Narodowe Święto Niepodległości | |
| 24 December | Thursday | Christmas Eve | Wigilia Bożego Narodzenia | New from 2025 |
| 25 December | Friday | Christmas Day (First Day) | Pierwszy Dzień Bożego Narodzenia | |
| 26 December | Saturday | Second Day of Christmas | Drugi Dzień Bożego Narodzenia | Saturday: substitute day off required |
Saturday holidays: which days must employers replace
In 2026, two holidays fall on Saturdays. Under Article 130 §2 of the Labour Code, each holiday falling on a day other than Sunday reduces nominal working time in that settlement period by 8 hours. Where a Saturday is already a non-working day under a five-day-week schedule, the employer must grant a substitute day off within the same settlement period. The substitute must be a full working day; it cannot be split across shorter periods.
2026 Saturday holidays — typical substitute dates
15 August (Saturday): Armed Forces Day / Assumption Day. For civil service employees, the Prime Minister’s Ordinance No. 2 of 5 January 2026 designated 14 August 2026 (Friday) as the substitute. Private-sector employers may set any date within the settlement period by agreement with employees or via the work schedule.
26 December (Saturday): Second Day of Christmas. Civil service substitute: 28 December 2026 (Monday). Private employers have flexibility to place the substitute day anywhere within the settlement period, though week-adjacent placement is common practice.
Note on Constitution Day (3 May, Sunday) and All Saints' Day (1 November, Sunday): Both fall on Sundays in 2026. Easter Sunday and Pentecost always fall on Sundays by definition. None of these four carry any substitute entitlement under Polish law. The employer has no obligation in those cases.
The new Christmas Eve holiday
Legislative alert: Act of 6 December 2024
Christmas Eve is now a statutory holiday
The Act of 6 December 2024 (Dz.U. 2024, poz. 1965) amended the Act of 18 January 1951 to add 24 December as a statutory non-working day, effective 1 January 2025. This means 2026 is only the second year in which it fully applies. International employers who configured payroll or absence systems based on a 13-holiday list must verify their records include Christmas Eve. In 2026, 24 December falls on a Thursday, so no substitute is required — but full non-working-day status applies.
Employer and payroll obligations
Statutory right to take holidays off
All 14 statutory holidays are mandatory non-working days for employees working under standard employment contracts governed by the Labour Code (Kodeks pracy). There is no opt-out for employers, and collective agreements cannot reduce this protection. Work on a statutory holiday is generally prohibited under Article 151(10) of the Labour Code, with limited sectoral exceptions including healthcare, emergency services, transport, retail in certain forms, and other industries where the nature of work or customer demand makes it necessary.
Unlike some countries in the Jackson & Frank network, there is no distinction in Poland between “bank” and “public” holidays, and no category of optional observance. All 14 dates carry identical legal weight.
Working-time reduction and substitute days off
The mechanism in Polish law is a working-time reduction rather than a straightforward day off in lieu. Article 130 §2 of the Labour Code provides that each holiday falling on a day other than Sunday reduces the nominal working time in the settlement period by 8 hours. For holidays falling on Saturdays (the typical non-working sixth day under a five-day schedule), this reduction triggers an obligation on the employer to grant a free working day as compensation within the settlement period. Settlement periods in Poland are typically one month, though employers may adopt longer periods (up to four months for standard work, twelve months for certain flexible arrangements).
Article 130 §2, Labour Code: “Each holiday occurring in the settlement period and falling on a day other than Sunday reduces the working time standard in that period by 8 hours.”
Constitutional Tribunal judgment K 27/11: Confirmed that employees are entitled to have a day off for holidays falling on non-working days such as Saturdays, and employers cannot request work on those holidays without providing full compensation.
Pay for working on a public holiday
The primary entitlement when an employee works on a statutory holiday is a substitute day off, not an immediate pay supplement. Article 151(11) of the Labour Code requires the employer to grant the substitute day off before the end of the settlement period. Only if granting a substitute day off within the settlement period is genuinely not possible does a 100% pay supplement apply for each hour worked on the holiday. This supplement is paid in addition to normal remuneration.
A separate 100% supplement also applies under Article 151 §2 if working on a holiday causes the employee to exceed the average weekly working-time standard for the settlement period. These two supplements are independent and can both apply in the same pay period.
Holiday pay summary
No work on the holiday: Employee receives normal salary. No deduction for the non-working day.
Work on the holiday: substitute day granted within settlement period: Normal salary only. No additional supplement.
Work on the holiday: substitute day NOT granted within settlement period: Normal salary plus a 100% supplement for each hour worked on the holiday.
Work on the holiday causes weekly overtime: Additional 100% supplement for hours exceeding the weekly norm (Art. 151 §2). This is cumulative with the holiday supplement where applicable.
Penalty: Failure to grant a substitute day off for a Saturday holiday, or failure to pay the appropriate supplement when a substitute day off cannot be provided, constitutes a violation of basic employee rights. The State Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy) may impose a fine of between 1,000 PLN and 30,000 PLN on the employer.
Sector-specific rules for holiday work
Certain sectors may require employees to work on statutory holidays by the nature of operations. These include but are not limited to: healthcare and emergency services; continuous-process industries (energy, chemicals, water treatment); transportation and logistics; hospitality; and specific retail formats. Employers in these categories must still comply with the substitute-day-off or pay-supplement mechanism; the sectoral exemption concerns the prohibition on organising work, not the compensation obligation.
Employees on weekend-work contracts under Article 144 of the Labour Code — those whose standard schedule includes Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays — are not entitled to a substitute day off when a holiday falls on a Saturday that forms part of their standard working schedule.
Holiday pay during absence
If an employee is on approved sick leave (L4 medical certificate) on the day the employer has designated as a substitute day off for a Saturday holiday, the employer has fulfilled its obligation. The employee does not receive an additional substitute for the substitute. This position has been consistently upheld by labour inspectors and confirmed in ministerial guidance.
Payroll calculation impact
For monthly-salaried employees, the monthly gross salary does not change because of public holidays: holidays reduce the number of working days but do not reduce the contractual salary. For hourly workers, normal pay is due for public holidays even though no work is performed. Employers calculating overtime or shift differentials must apply Article 130 §2 correctly to establish the reference working-time standard for the period before calculating any premium payments.
What this means for international employers
For companies managing Polish employees from abroad, whether through direct employment, branch operations, or an employer-of-record arrangement, the following points are the most frequently missed in compliance reviews.
Verify your absence-management system includes Christmas Eve. The 24 December holiday was added in 2025. HR and payroll platforms configured before that date may still carry a 13-holiday list. Any system showing fewer than 14 Polish public holidays is out of date and will generate incorrect working-time calculations.
Plan substitute days for the two Saturday holidays before the settlement period closes. The law requires the substitute day to fall within the same settlement period, which is typically the calendar month. For 15 August, the substitute must be granted in August 2026. For 26 December, it must fall in December 2026. Late placement is a labour inspection risk.
There are no regional holiday exceptions to model. Unlike Spain (three-tier system with national, regional, and municipal days) or Germany (16-state variations), Poland’s list is identical everywhere. An employer with offices in Warsaw, Kraków, and Wrocław manages the same holiday calendar in all three cities.
No automatic monetary premium is due on holidays unless a substitute day off cannot be provided. International employers accustomed to UK double-time or Spanish festivo supplements should note that the Polish default is time-off-in-lieu, not enhanced pay. A well-maintained settlement period schedule removes the pay obligation entirely.
Weekend-work contract employees are a distinct category. If any Polish employees are engaged under Article 144 weekend-work contracts, confirm their schedules before applying Saturday-holiday rules. These employees have no substitute entitlement for Saturday holidays included in their schedule.
Collective agreements and internal work regulations cannot reduce statutory protections. Where collective agreements exist, they may grant additional holidays or enhanced pay, but they cannot remove the 14-day entitlement or reduce substitute-day obligations below the statutory minimum.
Jackson & Frank’s employer-of-record solution manages Polish holiday compliance, including substitute-day scheduling, payroll calculation, and Labour Inspectorate readiness, as part of the standard service, removing the administrative burden from your in-house team.
Poland public holidays 2026 FAQs
Common questions about Polish statutory holidays, Saturday substitute rules, and employer obligations in 2026
Poland has 14 statutory public holidays in 2026 under the Act of 18 January 1951 on Public Holidays (as amended by the Act of 6 December 2024). However, employees receive only 10 effective working-time reductions, because 4 of the 14 holidays fall on Sundays: Easter Sunday, Constitution Day (3 May), Pentecost (24 May), and All Saints' Day (1 November). Under Article 130 §2 of the Labour Code, holidays falling on Sundays do not generate any substitute day-off entitlement, so those four are absorbed without compensatory benefit.
Sources
- Obwieszczenie Marszałka Sejmu z 6 marca 2025 r.: consolidated text of the Act of 18 January 1951 on Public Holidays (Dz.U. 2025, poz. 296)
isap.sejm.gov.pl. ISAP, Sejm of the Republic of Poland - Ustawa z 6 grudnia 2024 r. o zmianie ustawy o dniach wolnych od pracy (Dz.U. 2024, poz. 1965): Act adding Christmas Eve as a statutory public holiday
isap.sejm.gov.pl. ISAP, Sejm of the Republic of Poland - Święta wolne od pracy w 2026 roku
zielonalinia.gov.pl. Zielona Linia (official portal of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy / Ochotnicze Hufce Pracy), published 3 December 2025 - Public and Official Holidays: Poland in US
gov.pl. Polish Embassy to the United States, listing 2026 Polish public holidays - 14 sierpnia i 28 grudnia 2026 wolne od pracy dla korpusu służby cywilnej
gov.pl. Civil Service portal: substitute days designated by Prime Minister’s Ordinance No. 2 of 5 January 2026 - Ustawa z 18 stycznia 1951 r. o dniach wolnych od pracy
isap.sejm.gov.pl. Original Act of 18 January 1951, ISAP, Sejm of the Republic of Poland
