A Company Pays for 12 Hours of Work. Does the Employee Also Have 12 Hours Settled?
Recording the working time of temporary workers is not only the agency's business. The user employer is also responsible for keeping these records
Data from the entrance gates show 12 hours of presence at the plant. Presence on the premises alone does not yet mean that all 12 hours are working time. However, if the schedule, the working time records and operational data confirm a full 12-hour shift, while the report accepted as the basis for calculating pay covers fewer hours, such a discrepancy requires an explanation. This is not solely a problem for an external provider's payroll. In the temporary work model, the user employer has its own statutory obligation to keep records of the temporary worker's working time. Failing to keep the required records of a temporary worker's working time may result in a fine of PLN 1,000 to PLN 30,000. For manufacturing plants, logistics centers and warehouses, this means that operational data should be regularly reconciled with working time records and with the information passed to the agency that affects the correct determination of the worker's pay and other benefits.
Why working time records are also a client risk
In temporary work, the temporary work agency remains the formal employer, but the obligations related to work organization are divided. It is the user employer that assigns tasks, supervises their performance and organizes work at its plant. The Act on Employing Temporary Workers also imposes on it the obligation to keep working time records to the extent and under the rules that apply to its own employees.
It is therefore not enough to assume that, since the agency calculates and pays the remuneration, full responsibility for working time data stays with the agency. The agency and the user employer should also agree in writing on the scope of information about the course of work that affects the temporary worker's pay, as well as the manner and deadline for passing it to the agency. The agency needs reliable information to correctly determine pay and other benefits, while the client should have its own records matching the actual course of work. The lack of such records on the user employer's side may result in a heavy fine.
The National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) stresses that working time records are not the same as an attendance list. They should include, among other things, the number of hours worked and the start and end times of work, night work, overtime, days off and absences. Access control data can be an important source of verification, but on their own they do not replace the complete records required by law.
When a difference in hours becomes a warning signal
A 12-hour shift in itself does not amount to a breach of the law. It may be permissible under an appropriate working time system and schedule. Likewise, 12 hours of presence registered by the entry and exit system does not have to mean 12 hours of working time, because what matters is whether the employee remained at the employer's disposal during that time and what breaks applied in the given work system. The risk arises when the actual time of performing work is not reflected in the records, or when data from several systems contradict one another. An example is a situation in which the entry and exit system, the crew schedule and production data together indicate a full shift, while the document that serves as the basis for settling the worker's pay shows fewer hours.
A discrepancy may concern not only the total number of hours. The start and end times of work, night work, overtime, breaks, days off and the way work above the set working time is compensated also matter. The mere fact that the number of hours shown on the invoice to the client differs from the number of hours accepted for calculating the worker's pay does not yet amount to a breach of the law. The way of invoicing results from the commercial relationship between the client and the agency. The difference should, however, have a clear, documented justification resulting from the settlement model and the working time records. If a discrepancy cannot be explained or the actual working time has not been properly taken into account when calculating pay, employment, financial and inspection risks may arise, including claims for underpaid wages, settlement corrections, complaints to PIP, higher turnover and a loss of trust in the provider.
The problem also has an operational dimension. Incorrect data distort the cost of an hour of work, shift productivity and the comparison of agency offers. A company may consider one provider more competitive, even though the lower price results not from efficiency but from incomplete settlement of working time or allowances.
What recruiters and agency worker coordinators see
– A discrepancy in hours very quickly stops being only an HR and payroll matter. The worker compares the schedule, their own notes and the pay received. If they cannot get a clear explanation, trust in the agency and in the company where they perform the work declines. At Gremi Personal, as an international staffing agency, we see that transparent settlement of hours has a direct effect on retention, attendance and staffing stability. Our recruiters and worker coordinators must have access to consistent data, because even the best recruitment will not protect a process if people leave because of unclear settlements – says Anna Dzhobolda, Strategic Advisor of the Recruitment Department at Gremi Personal.
The agency's experience matters especially in plants working in shifts, where data from access control systems, production planning, foremen's schedules and HR tools all exist at once. Each of these systems may serve a different purpose, so one should not automatically assume that they show identical working time. Recurring or unexplained differences nevertheless require checking before they become the basis of erroneous payroll.
– A temporary worker should know how many hours have been settled for them, what the payout is based on and whom they can report a discrepancy to. On the client's side, it is equally important to establish who approves working time, who passes the data to the agency and by when errors are corrected. In Gremi Personal's practice, a transparent process of data exchange between the plant, the agency and the worker is one of the conditions of stable cooperation. This is especially important when employing foreigners, for whom unclear documents or pay can further heighten the sense of uncertainty – adds Anna Dzhobolda.
How to check whether working time is correctly recorded and settled
The first step should be to establish a single, documented process for approving working time. It must define the data sources, the responsible persons on the client's and the agency's side, the deadlines for closing the settlement period and the rules for correcting discrepancies. What is key is the ability to trace the path of information from the shift actually worked to the working time records and the data passed to the agency for calculating pay, and then to settlement with the client. The individual values do not have to be identical, but every difference should result from clearly defined settlement rules and be possible to document.
In practice, the review should include a regular comparison of the records with shift schedules and, as a supporting measure, with data from entrance gates and operational systems. Particular attention is required for manual corrections, recurring differences on the same shifts, discrepancies concerning night work and overtime, and situations in which the difference between the hours that form the basis of the invoice and the hours accepted for payroll has no documented justification. It is also good practice to periodically verify whether the data passed to the agency were correctly taken into account in settling workers' pay, in compliance with personal data protection rules. Such a review can rely on control reports, aggregated data or an audit properly regulated in the contract, instead of free client access to individual payslips. At the same time, it is worth providing workers with a simple channel for reporting discrepancies.
In the contract with the agency, it is worth specifying precisely how data are to be passed on, who is responsible for approving them, the scope and rules of an audit, if the parties provide for such a right, and the deadline for correcting errors. The point is not for the client to take over the agency's payroll function, but to fulfill its own record-keeping obligation and check whether the cooperation model creates a gap between what happens on the shift and what makes it into settlement.
The lowest rate does not show the full cost of staff
Working time records are one of the areas in which a seemingly attractive service price may involve a risk of incomplete settlement of the benefits owed to the worker, or a future risk on the client's side. If a provider cannot demonstrate how it reconciles working time, calculates allowances and corrects discrepancies, the hourly rate alone provides no basis for a reliable comparison of offers.
A mature procurement process for staffing services should cover not only the price, the availability of candidates and the speed of filling staffing gaps, but also verification of the KRAZ entry (National Register of Employment Agencies), the employment model, the rules for calculating pay and contributions, the legality of foreigners' work and working time records.