Emotions do not stop at the end of the legislative work on the draft bill regulating the rental and tenancy contracts in shopping malls in Poland in the era of the COVID-19 crisis. In this case, the Polish government addressed an amendment to its own bill to Polish Parliament, which it put to voting 24 hours earlier.

KIEŁTYKA GŁADKOWSKI KG LEGAL is closely following the legislative process of anti-crisis regulations which the Polish government wants to introduce in Poland to alleviate the economic situation of the COVID-19 crisis, particularly by means of the emergency COVID-19 act (the so-called anti-crisis shield).

One of the economic problems that the Polish government wants to regulate in this way is the issue of rents and rental agreements in retailer shopping malls in Poland (i.e. in large retailer malls of over 2000 m2).

The main problem is the issue of who is to bear the burden (cost) of closing the shopping centres due to the condition of the COVID-19 epidemic announced on March 20, 2020 throughout Poland.

The original draft bill (about which you can read here) assumed that the rents will be covered in 90% by the landlords (e.g. the entity that owns the entire shopping mall). The government’s amendment to the draft anti-crisis law, submitted on March 27, 2020, introduces a completely different solution.

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Pursuant to Article 46 of the Act of 5 December 2008 on preventing and combating infections and infectious diseases in humans (consolidated text Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1239, as amended), the Polish Minister of Health announced epidemic status due to SARS-CoV-2 virus infections from March 20, 2020 until further notice throughout the entire area of the Republic of Poland.

The status of the epidemic was announced by the ordinance of the Polish Minister of Health of 20 March 2020 regarding the announcement of the status of the epidemic in the territory of the Republic of Poland (Journal of Laws No. 491, as amended). The statutory “epidemic state” authorized the Polish government to introduce a special legal situation in the Polish business.

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In connection with the prevailing coronavirus pandemic, a package of legal changes is being prepared in Poland to facilitate the functioning of companies during coronavirus pandemic. So far in Poland the legal changes caused by COVID-19 have been implemented on the basis of the main act of law dated 2 March 2020 on specific solutions related to the prevention and combating COVID-19 effects and crisis situations caused by the latter (the act of law passed by the Polish Parliament and published in the Journal of Laws under item 374, hereinafter “COVID-19 Polish emergency law”). Pursuant to the draft act amending COVID-19 Polish emergency law (that amends more than 30 different Polish acts of law, including the Polish Companies Code), in the new art. 25 there are to be implemented provisions regarding the remote decision-making by corporate bodies.

Remote decision-making in the management boards of companies is allowed unless the companies’ articles of association stipulate otherwise.

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WHO’s announcement that COVID-19 can be characterized as “pandemic” causes that the economic problems of local businesses arising from the epidemic state are global. Simply put, similar legal measures temporarily implemented into the legal environment of all pandemic countries create very similar economic problems and legal challenges for businesses (especially corporations).

In the face of an increasing number of corporate questions from its Clients, KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG Legal is preparing a guide to assistance packages in individual jurisdictions affected by negative effects of coronavirus. As a part of the project, KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG Legal is preparing a chapter devoted to the specific legal solutions in the face of coronavirus epidemy in Poland and the aid measures launched by the Polish government for companies operating in Poland that are affected by the negative effects of coronavirus.

The discussed issues concern, among others, the distribution of aid granted to Poland from the European Union. Poland is the largest beneficiary of the European Union funds earmarked for combating the effects of the coronavirus epidemic and is to receive approximately EUR 7.5 billion.
The report discusses legal and public aid mechanisms for entrepreneurs and employers in Poland. KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG Legal also advises on the application of general principles of Polish law in the case of so-called emergency states, such as the coronavirus pandemic, including labour law, #payment gridlocks, performance of contracts.

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The coronavirus infection in Poland has created considerable legal challenges for a number of sectors.

KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG Legal has developed measures to assist its Clients, entrepreneurs and employers, in order to minimise the negative effects of COVID-19 outbreak.

The Polish authorities have implemented an emergency act of law as of 2 March 2020 (about coronavirus effects and combating them; so called “Coronavirus Act”) which regulates, among others, two crucial issues from the point of entrepreneurs – employers.

Firstly that the employee who has a child younger than 8 years and demonstrates that he or she is forced to exercise personal care over such a child (namely that there is no other parent taking care of the child, no other member of the family or no other caretaker for the child) has the right to apply for carer’s allowance and have additional 14 days off work to look after the child. For the period when the employee stays at home with the child the standard salary is not paid. There is, instead, paid the carer’s allowance which amounts to 80% of the remuneration. The carer’s allowance is paid from the funds of the Polish Social Insurance Fund. If the employer has registered more than 20 employees, it is standard that the employer makes the payment to the employee and then applies to the Social Insurance Fund for compensation.

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