You apply for a job at a café. The interview goes well, but before hiring you, the manager says: “Come in on
Saturday and work a shift. We need to see how you do.” There is just one problem. You will not be paid.
Young workers in Poland can encounter offers like this in restaurants, cafés, shops, beauty services and other
entry-level jobs. Employers sometimes call them “trial shifts,” “test days” or simply part of recruitment. But there
is an important difference between demonstrating your skills during recruitment and doing real work for a
business for free.
An employer has the right to check whether you are suitable for a job. A restaurant may want to know whether a
cook has the necessary skills. A company may ask a candidate to complete a recruitment task. Simply being asked
to demonstrate an ability does not automatically mean that something is wrong. The situation becomes more
concerning when the “test” looks exactly like a normal working shift.
Imagine that you spend six hours serving customers, cleaning tables, preparing orders or stocking shelves. You
follow the manager’s instructions and perform the same tasks as paid employees. The business benefits from your
work, but at the end of the day you are told that the shift was only a test and therefore you will receive nothing.
That should be a serious warning sign.
Before agreeing to a trial shift, ask exactly what you will be expected to do, how long it will last and whether you
will be paid. You should also ask what type of contract will apply if you are performing actual work. Do this before
the shift starts, not afterwards.
Be particularly cautious if the employer refuses to answer these questions clearly. Statements such as “Everyone
has to do it,” “We’ll discuss payment later,” or “First prove that you’re worth hiring” do not explain your legal
position.
Another warning sign is when a company repeatedly uses different candidates for unpaid trial shifts. If one person
works Saturday for free, another comes on Sunday and a third person appears the following week, the employer
may not genuinely be recruiting. They may simply be using job applicants as a source of free labour.
Keep records of what was agreed. Save the job advertisement and messages with the employer. If you do attend a
trial, note when you arrived, when you left and what tasks you performed. These details can matter if there is later
a disagreement over whether you should have been paid.
Do not assume that being young or inexperienced means your time has no value. Training a new employee may
cost an employer time and money, but that is a normal part of running a business. It does not automatically justify
asking someone to perform productive work without compensation.
If you believe an employer has used an unpaid “trial shift” to obtain free labour, you can seek advice from a trade
union, labour rights organisation or Poland’s National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy – PIP). The
exact legal situation will depend on what you actually did and the arrangement between you and the employer.
A short skills test and a full working shift are not the same thing. Before you agree to “just come in and try,” ask
what that really means. Your first day at work should not become somebody else’s free day of labour.