You find a job in Poland. The company likes you and wants you to start next month. But instead of offering you an
employment contract, your future boss tells you to register your own business.
“You’ll be self-employed. Everyone here works B2B.” You open a jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza (JDG)
and begin sending the company an invoice every month. But are you really running your own business?
B2B contracts are common in Poland and they are not automatically a problem. Genuine self-employment can
offer considerable independence. A freelancer or contractor may decide when and how to work, serve several
clients, negotiate their own rates and take responsibility for running their business.
The problem begins when “self-employment” exists mainly on paper. Imagine that you work Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 17:00. Your manager decides your hours, tells you where to work and supervises your daily tasks. You personally have to
perform the work and operate much like the company’s regular employees. But officially, you are an independent
business providing services to a “client.” That distinction can matter.
A contract’s name is not everything.
Under Polish law, an employment relationship has certain characteristics. An employee performs work of a
specified type for an employer, under the employer’s direction, and at a place and time determined by the
employer. In return, the employer pays the employee.
If work is performed under conditions characteristic of an employment relationship, simply giving the agreement
another name does not automatically change what the relationship really is.
That does not mean that every contractor who has regular hours or works primarily for one company is
automatically an employee. The entire relationship has to be considered. But you should pay attention when your
supposed “business relationship” looks almost identical to ordinary employment.
Why does the difference matter?
An umowa o pracę comes with protections provided by Polish labour law. These include rules on working time,
paid annual leave, minimum wage, notice periods, overtime and certain protections against dismissal.
A B2B contractor operates under a different legal framework. Your rights depend heavily on your contract, and you
generally do not receive the full package of employee protections simply because you perform work for a
company.
You may also have responsibilities that an employer would otherwise handle. As a business owner, you may need
to deal with invoices, taxes and ZUS contributions yourself.
This is why a company offering a higher amount “on B2B” should not be compared directly with the gross salary
offered under an employment contract. The arrangements are different, and so are the costs and protections.
Look at how the job actually works
If you are offered B2B cooperation, ask yourself some practical questions. Can you decide how to organize your
work? Can you work for other clients? Can you negotiate the terms of individual projects? Do you genuinely
operate independently?
Or does one company control your working day, supervise you like an employee and expect you to follow the same
rules as its employees while insisting that you are an outside contractor?
The answers can tell you much more than the word “B2B” at the top of your contract. Also read the agreement
carefully before signing. Check how payment works, how either side can end the cooperation, whether there are
penalties, whether you can work for other clients, and what happens when you want to take time off. Do not
assume that benefits associated with employment automatically apply to you.
“But everyone here is B2B”
That may be true. It does not answer the important question. B2B itself is legal. Many people genuinely prefer it.
The issue is whether the arrangement reflects how you actually work or whether self-employment is being used to
disguise what is, in practice, an employment relationship.
If you think your B2B arrangement may actually have the characteristics of employment, you can seek advice from
a trade union, labour rights organisation, lawyer or Poland’s National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja
Pracy – PIP). Registering a business does not magically make every working relationship independent. Do not look
only at what your contract calls you. Look at how you actually work.