The employer is obliged to provide appropriate meal and drinks free of charge to workers employed in particularly strenuous conditions if this is required for protective reasons (article 232 of the Labour Code) The types of meals and dinks, the requirements they should satisfy and also cases and conditions for issuing them are specified in the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 28 May 1996 on free meals and drinks, (Journal of Laws no. 60, item 279)

Typical work that requires the provision of free meals amd drinks includes:

- continuous manual transportation, loading and unloading work
- manual excavation  
- the work of a woodcutter
- work performed in closed premises, in which the temperature is constantly kept
  below 10°C for technological reasons or the thermal load is greater than 25°C