Collective labour disputes and strikes decline

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According to figures published in 2003, tn 2002 the number of registered collective labour disputes in Poland fell below 100 for the first time in six years, while the year saw only one strike, compared with 11 in 2001. However, protest actions outside the employer's premises became increasingly frequent.

Alongside the State Labour Inspection (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy, PIP), the Polish institution responsible for registering collective labour disputes (not necessarily resulting in industrial action) is the Ministry of the Economy, Labour and Social Policy (Ministerstwo Gospodarki, Pracy i Polityki Społecznej, MGPiPS). The dispute data presented by the two institutions tend to vary considerably. Under the Act regarding resolution of collective disputes (PL0207103F), an employer is obliged to notify the District Labour Inspection (Okręgowa Inspekcja Pracy) of the commencement of a collective labour dispute within its operation. After the collective dispute has been notified, a first stage of direct negotiations is commenced, terminating either in agreement or in the drafting and signing of a 'protocol of differences'. No figures are available on the number of disputes concluding in agreement at this first stage. If the first stage ends in a protocol of differences, the dispute proceeds to a second stage – mediation. The parties may either appoint a mediator of their own accord or apply for one to be nominated from a list maintained by the Ministry. This does not in itself oblige the parties to make use of the mediator’s assistance; it is for this reason that the collective dispute figures provided by the Ministry tend to be artificially low, even though the register includes disputes which have passed beyond the phase where resolution by the parties themselves was possible.

According to data published by the Ministry in 2003 relating to collective disputes over the period 1994-2002, there was a period of sustained increase in the number of recorded disputes up until 1998, when the number exceeded the 100 mark for the first time. The number of disputes then continued to a high point of 160 in 2000, whereafter they fell to stand at 65 in 2002 - the first year 1997 that the figure was below 100 and the lowest number of disputes during the period examined.

Dividing the collective disputes into those registered and concluded without the involvement of a mediator and those registered and then subject to mediation, the data show that the latter are on the increase. The absolute number of disputes involving mediators has been falling - from 102 in 2000 and 64 in 2001 to 43 in 2002 - yet they account for an ever-greater proportion of all disputes registered by the Ministry. In 1998, disputes resolved with the assistance of a mediator accounted for almost 57% of all disputes, and this proportion rose to 64% in 2000 and over 66% in 2002. These figures appear to indicate a marked lessening in adversarial relations within employing organisations.

This is borne out by the latest industrial action statistics. Only one strike was registered in Poland during 2002, according to data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland (Główny Urząd Statystyczny, GUS). This strike - concerning payment of overdue wages - occurred in the first half of the year and involved 2.7% of the workforce of the employer concerned, resulting in the loss of 1,000 working hours, or 74 hours per striker. The figures for 2001, by contrast, were 11 strikes, involving 32.8% of the workforce of the employers concerned and the loss of 33,400 working hours. However, GUS notes that 2002 witnessed many protest actions which did not quite develop into strikes, for instance involving coal miners, healthcare workers (PL0212102N), shipyard workers (PL0211101N and PL0209101N) and the Fabryka Kabli cable factory in Ożarów (PL0208104N).

While the collective dispute and industrial action statistics suggest that conflicts between employers and workers are on the decrease, some commentators are of the view that the continuing protest actions indicate there are still simmering conflicts, but that the more radical and costly forms of addressing them (those which affect first and foremost the employer, such as work stoppages) are losing popularity.