IT is dominated by B2B. But the EU is forcing changes. What about programmers? “They may feel they’ve been hit by a ricochet”

There are over 229 thousand registered software and IT businesses on the Polish market, of which over 99 percent are entities employing fewer than 10 people. Most of these small businesses are probably employed under B2B contracts – we read in the No Fluff Jobs report sent to our editorial mailbox, which refers to

Such numerous B2B contracts in the IT industry may soon become a thing of the past, because the EU is forcing Poland to fight against junk contracts and in connection with this the government is preparing a tool that will enable the State Labor Inspectorate to transform a civil law or B2B contract into an employment contract. Currently, a court is needed for this. How will the industry react to this?

B2B dominates IT. Developers may be unhappy with changes

The popularity of B2B contracts in the industry grows with higher positions. According to the company’s data, as many as 74 percent of senior IT job offers included a B2B contract. An employment contract was proposed in 49.5 percent of offers, a contract for services in 1.14 percent, and a contract for specific work in 0.33 percent. These percentages do not add up to 100 because employers can propose different types of contracts in one offer.

Among the offers for entry-level IT specialists, advertisements offering employment contracts predominate, with a percentage of 56.35% in the first half of 2024. However, there are slightly fewer B2B offers – 49.72%. In the case of contracts for services, it is 22.24%, and for specific work – 2%.

“This solution (B2B contracts – ed.) is appreciated by both employers and employees. Employers avoid costs related to paying health insurance and social security contributions, and employees can count on higher net earnings, which is particularly beneficial for people in higher positions, earning a dozen or several dozen thousand złoty per month,” comments the president of No Fluff Jobs, Tomasz Bujok. In his opinion, for this reason the IT industry may be reluctant to force people to work full-time.

Those in the tech industry could feel like they’re being backfired by the EU’s attempt to improve conditions for another group. Who knows, it could just cause IT to stagnate even more

– says Bujok.

Changes are coming to the labor market. The EU wants to end junk contracts, the Ministry of Labor has even more ambitious plans

Contracts for services would be subject to contributions on the same principles as employment contracts from 1 January 2025. The new regulations are also to abolish the principle of paying contributions for civil law contracts from the minimum wage. Assuming that there are less than 17 million people working in Poland, over 13% are employed in waste management. Waste management is mainly the domain of the private sector – 89.6%. In the public sector, this ratio is 55.7%, and in the private sector – 50.8%.

From 2026, the length of service is also to include the period worked under junk contracts (contracts of mandate), sole proprietorships, and even time worked abroad. The time worked under an agency contract and the period of serving as a member of parliament, senator, or MEP are also to be taken into account. Length of service mainly affects the length of vacation days that we are entitled to in a full-time job. When our length of service reaches 10 years, the number of paid vacation days increases from 20 to 26 (higher education, the completion of which gives us 8 years of work experience, is also included in the length of service). On a B2B contract, we are not entitled to paid leave at all. If you do not reach an agreement with your employer, any time off, even sick leave, is unpaid.