Collective bargaining in Poland

Collective bargaining takes place mainly at company level. However, company-level collective agreements require the existence of trade unions, which limits the collective bargaining coverage in the Polish context. Collective agreements at sectoral level in Poland are very rare. At national level, there is the RDS, whose responsibilities include setting the wage growth indicator for companies and the public sector. The RDS also sets the statutory minimum wage rates.

Collective agreements are legally binding. The party that is authorised to conclude a collective agreement cannot refuse to enter into collective bargaining if the aim is to conclude a new collective agreement or if the change to an existing collective agreement is required because of a significant change in the economic situation of an employer or the worsening situation of employees.

The process of decentralisation and the abandonment of the supra-company and sectoral collective agreements have become a permanent trend in the industrial relations system.

Wage bargaining coverage

According to European Company Survey data, wage bargaining in Poland is limited to company level and covers 17% of the establishments/companies with 10 or more employees covered in the European Company Survey.

Collective wage bargaining coverage of employees from different sources

Notes: * Percentage of employees working in local units where more than 50% of the employees are covered under a collective pay agreement against the total number of employees who participated in the survey.

Sources: Eurofound, European Company Survey 2013 and 2019 (including private sector companies with establishments with >10 employees (Nomenclature of Economic Activities (NACE) codes B–S), with multiple answers possible); Eurostat [earn_ses10_01], [earn_ses14_01], [earn_ses18_01], Structure of Earnings Survey 2010, 2014 and 2018 (including companies with >10 employees (NACE codes B–S, excluding O), with a single answer for each local unit).

There are no systematic administrative or survey data on the coverage of collective agreements and their evolution over time in Poland. According to PIP’s last published report, in 2015 a total of 60 single-employer collective agreements covering 101,000 employees were registered (around 0.4% of employees), compared with 88 single-employer collective agreements covering 43,000 employees registered in 2014. At the same time, there was a constant decline in the number of protocols to the existing agreements (which are a way of renewing or changing existing agreements) registered (2,830 protocols in 2009 and only 909 in 2015). The number of newly registered single-employer collective agreements in 2018 was 54, covering 21,067 employees. This suggests a significant decrease in the number of newly concluded collective agreements.

From the beginning of 2019, a change was introduced to the Trade Unions Act, under which all people performing paid work, not only employees, may be covered by a collective agreement. However, this did not increase the collective bargaining coverage in Poland. According to GUS, in 2020 (the last available data), there were 49 collective agreements in place. Taking into account that only a small fraction of companies are covered by collective agreements of any kind, it is quite likely that the European Company Survey and Structure of Earnings Survey results are overestimates – it is possible that the question asked during the interview was understood by interviewees as referring to the existence of any kind of company-level pay regulation that is collectively agreed, even those with no status as a registered collective agreement, such as pay regulation (regulamin wynagradzania).

Another level of collective agreements is multi-employer level. The number of multi-employer collective agreements is decreasing, and no genuinely new multi-employer agreements have been concluded in recent years. In 2017, 86 multi-employer collective agreements registered by the MRPiPS were in force, of which 76 covered administrative and technical employees in educational institutions (except for teachers). There are no current data on the number of workers covered by multi-employer agreements, but, as of 2013, they covered 390,000 employees (some 2.7% of employees). In February 2021, the MRPiPS reported that 61 agreements remained in the register, with 197 additional protocols, which represented a 30% decrease in the number of multi-employer collective agreements compared with the previous survey.

The latest data included in the ICWTSS database 5.0, based on PIP reporting, suggest that the adjusted collective wage bargaining coverage in Poland in 2012 was 14.7%.

The main level for any collective negotiations of wages and working time is company level. However, instead of concluding collective wage agreements, employers usually prefer to draw up in-house remuneration rules (pay regulations), as mandated by the Polish Labour Code for entities employing at least 20 people (Clause 77/2(1) of the Labour Code). If there are unions present, pay regulations are subject to bilateral agreement. In smaller entities, remuneration issues are regulated by individual employment contracts between the employer and individual employees.

In theory, it is also possible to negotiate wages and working time through multi-employer collective agreements, but this possibility is rarely used in practice. At national level, the minimum monthly wage is negotiated on an annual basis within the RDS.

Levels of collective bargaining, 2022

Articulation

The legislation that links various collective bargaining levels is rather poorly developed in Poland. The most relevant provision of the Labour Code (Clause 9(2)) states that the stipulations of company-level and multi-employer collective agreements and any regulations at company level cannot be less advantageous to workers than the Labour Code. According to Clause 9(3) of the Labour Code, the rules (including in-house remuneration rules) and statues introduced at company level cannot be less beneficial to workers than collective agreements.

As of 2021, from the legal point of view, the situation regarding wage-setting levels had not changed since 2017. Every year, the government submits a proposal to the RDS (formerly this was submitted to the Tripartite Commission on Social and Economic Affairs) on (1) the minimum wage, (2) minimum statutory hourly pay and (3) pay increase indicators in the state budget sector. All of these should be discussed by social partners, which should develop a joint position within 30 days, otherwise the government sets these values unilaterally. The latter scenario has prevailed in recent years due to a lack of consensus among the social partners.

Timing of the bargaining rounds

No data are available on the timing of company-level and multi-employer collective bargaining.

The procedure for setting the minimum wage consists of the following stages:

1. by 15 June, the Council of Ministers (Rada Ministrów) submits a proposal for the minimum wage rate for the subsequent year to the RDS

2. by 15 July, the RDS sets the minimum wage rate

3. by 15 September, the prime minister announces the minimum wage rate

Coordination

There is no central mechanism of wage bargaining coordination in Poland. In practice, the only legally set threshold for wage bargaining is the minimum wage. Given the lack of multi-employer wage agreements in most sectors, the relevance of formal horizontal coordination is limited.

Extension mechanisms

Clause 241/18 of the Labour Code states that multi-employer collective agreements can be extended by a decree of the MRPiPS to employers that are not affiliated to the signatory employer organisations following a joint request of an employer organisation and a multi-employer trade union. However, this legal opportunity is not used in practice, as multi-employer collective agreements are very rare in Poland.

In addition, Clause 241/10(1) of the Labour Code makes it possible for parties who are entitled to conclude a collective agreement to apply an existing collective agreement (or a part of it) that they did not conclude. There is no information about the scope of such extension procedures in practice. In addition, Clause 241/9(3) of the Labour Code gives the parties of a collective agreement the right to allow a trade union that was not a party of the collective agreement to join it.

Derogation mechanisms

By virtue of Clause 241/27 of the Labour Code, company collective agreements and multi-employer collective agreements, or their parts, can be suspended by signatory parties for a period of no longer than three years due to economic difficulties of the employer. According to the most recent report of PIP, the number of agreements to suspend a collective agreement due to economic problems of employers declined from 130 in 2010 to 85 in 2011, 76 in 2012 and 74 in 2013. There is no information about the sectoral coverage of the suspensions.

Expiry of collective agreements

Collective agreements can be concluded for a definite or indefinite period of time. An agreement can be dissolved based on the unanimous declaration of both parties or at the end of the period for which the agreement was concluded. Alternatively, an agreement can be terminated if one party gives notice (usually three months). If collective agreements expire and are not renegotiated, they cease to be legally binding.

Peace clauses

There are no peace clauses in collective agreements.

Other aspects of working life addressed in collective agreements

In general, there is no information about the content of collective agreements except for the brief reports of PIP.

According to Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy (2015), the range of topics tackled by single-employer collective bargaining rarely goes beyond the issues of wages and exceeds the minimal provisions of labour law. In the 2015 annual report, no such specification is offered. In 53 of the 88 collective agreements registered in 2014, seniority bonuses were provided and, in 59, there are better regulations of retirement gratuities than in the general legislation. There were also cases of additional bonuses for night work (in 22 agreements), overtime (in 10 agreements) and work on Sundays and bank holidays (in 15 agreements).