Actions in relation to material impacts [S1-4]

Actions in relation to material impacts on own workforce and approaches to managing material risks and leveraging material opportunities, and the effectiveness of those actions

The actions we take as part of managing material impacts on our own workforce are aligned with the applicable regulations on preventing mobbing and corruption and on reporting breaches (whistleblowing), which we describe in detail in [ESRS G1] on corporate governance.

  • implement and apply internal regulations to shape a working environment free from practices that infringe human rights;
  • build an organisational culture based on open communication, trust and mutual respect; we maintain ongoing communication with stakeholders through, among other things, business and internal meetings (e.g. councils, workshops, committees), training, employee surveys, reports, social media interactions – enabling us to optimise our actions with respect to human rights;
  • ensure appropriate working conditions by properly equipping office space, respecting the possibility of remote work; we promote work–life balance, employee development and wellbeing.

To support employees’ comfort at work and wellbeing, we offer solutions such as remote work, flexible working hours or part-time employment. In this way, we respect individual preferences regarding how and where work is performed and express our support for maintaining an appropriate balance between employees’ professional and private lives. We also organise a number of initiatives related to mental health, physical activity and health education.

Dialogue with employees is important to us; therefore, we communicate with them on an ongoing basis using internal channels available within the organisation, such as the intranet, chats and discussion forums. We also organise on-site and online meetings with the Management Board, during which we can exchange comments and insights directly in Q&A sessions. We support employees’ right to establish and join trade unions, conducting an open and transparent dialogue with all trade union organisations operating in the Bank as well as with the Employee Council. In 2025, as in previous years, we cooperated with trade union organisations in the area of bargaining, negotiations and consultations, on the terms set out in labour law, respecting the interests of both parties and the principles of social dialogue. In relations with trade unions, we act in good faith and strive to develop optimal solutions in the area of collective labour law, taking into account the interests of both employees and the Bank.

In 2025, a total of 35 one- or two-day meetings were held, mainly concerning:

  • the level of funds allocated for pay rises in 2025;
  • agreeing the allocation of the motivational awards fund for the previous year;
  • agreeing the rules for distributing the bonus fund in individual quarters;
  • agreeing the spending plan for the Company Social Benefits Fund for the year and amendments to the Company Social Benefits Fund regulations in the area of the benefits system;
  • meetings with members of the Bank’s Management Board;
  • presenting information on the survey of employee engagement and psychophysical resilience;
  • bargaining under Article 241² of the Labour Code; including employees engaged under managerial contracts (employment contracts) in the Company Collective Labour Agreement (ZUZP);
  • consultation on the intention to carry out collective redundancies;
  • presenting the Voluntary Redundancy Programme launched in 2025.

In addition, on 19 November 2025, following bargaining, the Bank and four trade union organisations that are parties to the ZUZP signed a Supplementary Protocol to the ZUZP introducing a quantitative–qualitative bonus scheme for retail network sales staff and Contact Centre sales staff, set out in Appendix 4D to the ZUZP. The Supplementary Protocol was registered by the Regional Labour Inspectorate in Warsaw.

At the Bank, we document the course of social dialogue and support communication between trade union organisations and employees by providing dedicated intranet pages. This enables organisations to publish their own bulletins and information on material workforce matters, including the course of dialogue with the employer.

Until 21 February 2025, the Employee Council of Bank Pekao S.A. (the “Employee Council”) operated as an independent employee representation body. The rules for its election, its purpose and its powers are set out in the Act of 7 April 2006 on Informing Employees and Consulting Them. The Council comprises 7 members elected in universal elections in which all Bank employees may stand.

Under the above Act, the Bank, as an employer, informs the Council about:

  • its activities and economic situation and anticipated changes in this respect;
  • the status, structure and anticipated changes in employment and actions aimed at maintaining employment levels;
  • actions that may cause significant changes in work organisation or the basis of employment.

In addition, at the request of the Employee Council, the employer consults the Council on matters specified in the Act. The Employee Council also has an intranet page for publishing information for the Bank’s employees.

In 2025, 3 meetings were held with the Employee Council devoted to:

  • work organisation in connection with implementing a new branch model;
  • a meeting with representatives of the Retail and Private Banking Division.

The Employee Council’s term ended on 21 February 2025. Elections for the next term will be held after the Bank receives a request from employees as required by law. To date, the Bank has not received such a request.

We attach importance to education and upskilling of the Bank’s employees. The HR Projects and Organisational Modelling Office is responsible for organising training. We are aware that opportunities for professional development have a positive impact, on the one hand, on employees’ sense of belonging to the organisation and, on the other hand, on the delivery of tasks necessary to achieve its objectives. Hence our diverse offering of educational programmes for Bank employees, which includes:

  • local training and general development webinars;
  • international training and programmes;
  • mentoring and group/team coaching;
  • individual internal and external coaching;
  • certification training, e.g. CFA/ACCA/CIA.

As part of individual training, we organise workshops and courses in specialist banking knowledge delivered by both internal and external trainers and experts – including moderators, coaches and facilitators. Participation enables employees to develop the competencies necessary to perform their assigned duties effectively. We fully cover the cost of employee participation in individual training to which we refer employees, and we partially reimburse – or provide via granted training leave – training that employees undertake on their own initiative. At the same time, for individual training that results in additional qualifications, licences or international certificates in which we co-finance participation, we require a training agreement to be concluded between the Bank and the employee. The agreement sets out the parties’ rights and obligations related to the employee’s professional development and the conditions under which employees reimburse training costs.

The development of employee skills that we focus on also includes foreign language learning in the form of individual language courses financed fully or partially by the Bank. These courses are aimed primarily at managers and high-potential employees who use a foreign language in their day-to-day duties. We deliver this training in cooperation with language schools with which the Bank has framework agreements.

We support employees in upskilling by enabling them, on their own initiative, to undertake postgraduate studies and MBA programmes in fields useful for work at the Bank. This form of support is also available to persons performing a key function in the Bank as part of their individual career paths. Where necessary, we also provide opportunities to obtain additional qualifications or authorisations required by external regulations. We enable professional development outside Poland through individual training, subject to separate approval of the business trip (flight and accommodation bookings).

  • providing access for all Bank employees and Group companies to the LinkedIn Learning platform and ensuring an offer of content;
  • AI Ambassador Programme;
  • M365 Ambassador Programme;
  • Law Academy;
  • ESG Academy;
  • MS Office Champions (Mistrzynie i Mistrzowie MS Office);
  • Executive MBA studies for managerial staff;
  • Kuźnia Zwinności (Agility Forge);
  • Banking Sales School;
  • Menedżerskie Shot’y (Managerial Shots) – a development programme for managerial staff that builds management and leadership competencies. The programme was designed for managers who do not have time for all-day training and receive practical “knowledge in a nutshell” within 45 minutes. In spring 2025, the sixth edition of Managerial Shots was held, with a total of 1,100 managers participating. As part of this edition, we organised ten workshops on the following topics:
    • Decisions under pressure – how to make good choices in a dynamic environment,
    • Microcoaching – how to develop employees in everyday situations,
    • The art of delegation – how to assign tasks and be confident they will be delivered,
    • Motivation – how and with what to engage employees,
    • From resistance to engagement – how to manage change effectively,
    • Managerial authority – building a partnership-based relationship within a team,
    • Different shades of mobbing and its consequences,
    • A conversation with an employee who is not delivering tasks,
    • Critical thinking,
    • How to be a mentor to your team.
  • Development Snacks – a series of short thematic workshops focused on a single area of personal and professional skills development, available to all Bank employees. In 2025, another edition of the programme was held, covering 10 workshops on, among other things, teamwork, building mental resilience and future skills.
  • Mission: Development – a programme for employees in which participants, through hands-on work on real business challenges in cross-organisational teams, discover and develop their competences and potential. In 2025, we continued the programme as part of its second edition, with six project teams from different areas of the Bank taking part. Through this programme, we not only support individual development, but also strengthen a culture of cooperation, innovation and accountability for the organisation’s development.
  • Team Talent DNA – for the first time at the Bank, we launched a development programme based on the CliftonStrengths34 assessment, covering 20 teams and involving 302 tests. The programme is a process consisting of six team workshops and an individual development pathway for managers.
  • Manager at the Start – we launched the first edition of a development programme designed to support newly appointed Bank managers in making an effective start in the leader role. It combines the provision of essential operational knowledge with the development of key managerial skills. The first pillar of the programme includes a series of short, recorded webinars on processes, regulations, recruitment and HR matters required for work in a managerial position. These materials help participants quickly navigate the formal and operational aspects of functioning within the organisation (available on the programme page). The second pillar is a cycle of workshops developing practical leadership competences. The workshop component starts with a joint online workshop, after which participants are assigned to one of two pathways. The “From Expert to Leader” pathway is intended for people taking up a managerial role for the first time. In turn, the “Leader in Our Organisation” pathway is aimed at experienced managers who are only just starting work at the Bank. The programme enables the conscious shaping of the leader role and a rapid adjustment to organisational realities. As a result, new managers can begin their work with greater confidence and effectiveness.
  • Within the Sugar Free programme for women, in 2025 we delivered development and educational activities arising from the programme’s strategic objectives. The thematic offering of the programme was continuously expanded and updated and included: development of professional, personal and parental competences delivered through training, workshops and webinars; development programmes (Aware Leader, Excelentni); and development initiatives aimed at promoting and educating on new technologies delivered through webinars, technical training and programmes such as “Closer to Technology” and “emPower Women”. We also successfully delivered two initiatives to raise pro-health awareness among employees: Pink October (4,000 participants) and Blue November (2,200 participants). In addition, we continued the second edition of the Development Programme for Local Female Leaders, building leadership and project competences. Towards the end of the year, we launched the first edition of a mentoring programme, under which 32 mentoring pairs began working together. In total, more than 7,000 women took part in these activities.

The planning and delivery of development programmes is primarily handled by the Department of Development Management and Organisational Culture.

We also use training as a channel to provide our employees with knowledge on occupational health and safety (OHS). As part of induction training, newly hired employees receive general instruction from representatives of the OHS Service and role-specific instruction from their direct line manager. Refresher training, in turn, is delivered entirely via the e-learning platform, giving employees convenient and flexible access to knowledge resources. The training topics align with the issues indicated in the framework programme set out in the Regulation of the Minister of Economy and Labour on training in the field of occupational health and safety.

The Bank’s OHS Service monitors compliance with occupational health and safety regulations and rules and continuously provides information on occupational hazards and methods of eliminating them. It also plays an important role in assessing occupational risk to ensure employees are effectively protected against hazards present in the work environment. We have a fully digitised occupational risk assessment process, with all stages carried out via a dedicated application.

We also build employee safety awareness through regular first-aid training sessions delivered by qualified paramedics. Preventive health examinations are carried out in cooperation with an occupational medicine physician, with a view to optimising the scope of such examinations.

To communicate the most important information, we use a dedicated intranet page where we publish applicable rules, instructions and guidelines. We also enable employees to report potential hazards to a dedicated OHS mailbox, unless they prefer to contact the Bank’s OHS Service representatives directly.

Our organisation also has an OHS Committee comprising representatives of the Bank, including the physician providing preventive care to employees, representatives of the OHS Service and persons representing employees. The Committee meets regularly, i.e. once per quarter, to discuss current OHS issues and initiatives, including hazards subject to estimation in the occupational risk assessment.

In addition, following proceedings carried out at the Bank to determine the circumstances and causes of workplace accidents, we implement recommendations aimed at improving occupational safety.

Moreover, within our organisational structure we also have resources dedicated to managing material impacts on our own employees within the HR Business Partners (HRBP) units. In 2025, the number of active positions amounted to 39 FTE (as of 31 December 2025). The role of HRBP units is to identify, analyse and assess risks related to actions undertaken towards employees, report them, and initiate measures to reduce or eliminate them.

One of the material negative impacts identified in the area of our own employees is uncertainty regarding job security linked to the increasing use of AI solutions in our organisation. The implementation of these solutions enables the digitisation of services and, consequently, streamlining of many banking operations. Actions taken in this area are based on automation and robotisation, leading, among other things, to the replacement of human resources with chatbots in customer service and creating a risk related to the closure of physical branches. This directly affects employment security for staff in bank branches, business and corporate centres and private banking outlets, and above all in call centre departments. This applies both to employees employed under employment contracts and to those engaged under civil law contracts. As these employees have specific skills related to direct customer service, the possibility of employing them in other, also increasingly automated, areas of banking, is limited.

To counteract the above impact, we draw on assumptions arising from our strategy of building an aspirational organisational culture, under which we invest in developing our employees’ skills, with a strong emphasis on future skills.

  • implementation of the LinkedIn Learning platform – a comprehensive source of the latest knowledge focused on developing competences that are key to increasing effectiveness in an employee’s current or next role. This solution is important for success in a modern working environment, as it enables employees to quickly reskill in line with the development of the sector, the company or a given department. Thanks to its broad base of experts and cooperating companies, LinkedIn Learning enables us to supplement knowledge regardless of role and scope of responsibilities. It also significantly supports the development of future skills: cognitive and technological competences, providing a comprehensive extension of the Bank’s training ecosystem. It is fully tailored to the capabilities and resources of our employees, enabling them to improve their skills both during and outside working hours, using business and personal devices. This includes not only training agreed with the line manager (during working hours), but also training unrelated to an employee’s duties (outside working hours). The most popular courses among the Bank’s employees are courses in the AI area;
  • #AI ambassador programme – a programme aimed at engaging employees in the adoption process and developing AI-related skills (with particular emphasis on the Copilot tool), knowledge sharing and building a community focused on developing competences in the use of AI, through wider rollout of an AI-based tool.

In 2025, we continued activities under the Copilot M365 pilot and the ambassador programme. We are currently in the tool adaptation phase and are running pilots to transform the way we work, with the goal of building a modern workplace environment. We also broadened employee participation in the implementation of the M365 Copilot tool by increasing the number of users.

  • explore – learning and testing the capabilities of #AI technology, with particular emphasis on the Copilot tool,
  • promote – championing #AI within the Bank,
  • communicate – acting as an information flow channel between the Copilot service implementation team and other employees,
  • engage – encouraging colleagues to use the tool, break habits, experiment, and share knowledge.

In 2025, the Ambassadors group undertook additional training to update and supplement their Copilot knowledge resulting from integration of the tool with cloud solutions. We implement the project with the involvement of our external partners, with whose support we deploy, test and explore Copilot’s capabilities.

  • a group of approximately 40 people acquired the skills necessary to serve as Copilot Ambassadors during the further implementation phase. Each Ambassador was required to complete training and pass a demanding exam.
  • a team of approximately 120 people was formed, prepared to perform tasks as competent M365 Ambassadors. We required M365 Ambassador candidates to complete training and pass a demanding exam.
  • over 4,300 employees have been trained in AI-enabled environments (M365) or AI tools.

In addition, we have launched mandatory AI training for all Bank employees.

A second material negative impact in the area of own employees concerns the gender pay gap. To reduce the gap, we carry out remedial actions in line with the Gender Equality and Diversity Policy, such as analysing and monitoring the pay structure. This enables us to verify the level of pay received by employees for work of equal value.

Minimising the pay gap is also one of the annual objectives for the management team. As part of monthly monitoring, managers receive information on changes in the pay gap (based on basic salaries) within the units they oversee.

In addition, during the Bank’s annual salary review process, we take the pay gap into account. The salary review tool available to managers allows them to track how approved pay increases affect the pay gap (based on basic salaries)

As a result of the 2025 salary review process, the pay gap between women and men covered by the Company Collective Labour Agreement decreased by 0.6 percentage points, and by 0.8 percentage points at the level of the entire Bank. This indicator is calculated on a simplified basis, using basic salaries under employment contracts and excluding variable pay components.

The pay rise process is implemented based on an annual budget earmarked for this purpose for the population covered by the Company Collective Labour Agreement.

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