Inter-company ties alone insufficient for ZUS to challenge civil law contract

Simply having connections between companies is insufficient grounds for Poland's Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) to challenge a civil law contract, known as an "umowa zlecenie." ZUS must provide concrete evidence demonstrating that the individual is performing work for their employer, rather than merely being associated with a related entity.

This principle was reinforced in a recent court case involving a woman employed full-time by one company and engaged on an "umowa zlecenie" basis with another. Both companies were linked by common shareholders and management from the same family, shared infrastructure, and even common employee facilities like changing rooms.

ZUS had argued that these circumstances indicated an attempt to circumvent full social security contributions and labor law regulations. They sought to reclassify the contractor's status to that of an employee, thereby applying higher contribution rates. However, the appellate court dismissed ZUS's claim.

The court found that ZUS failed to present adequate proof that the woman was actually performing work for the company that was her primary employer under the terms of the "umowa zlecenie." The court noted that the companies were not in a dominant-subordinate relationship and that the employee performed distinct tasks for each entity in separate facilities, with each company maintaining its own machinery, property, employees, and clients. Crucially, ZUS did not provide evidence that the primary employer was financing the payments made by the second company under the contract.