Czarzasty, Jan

In Poland the national minimum wage is set annually in accordance with the Minimum Wage Act of 2002. The Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Affairs (Trójstronna Komisja ds. Społeczno Gospodarczych [1]) decides the wage level for the next year based on proposals submitted by the government. [1] http://www.dialog.gov.pl/komisja_trojstronna

Regional Railways (PR [1]) company was established in 2001, initially as PKP PR, to indicate its origins in the former monopoly Polish State Railways (PKP [2]). PR assumed responsibility for local and regional passenger transport but also launched a special type of national, inter-regional train service. Consequently, PR has become the largest passenger railway operator in Poland, with roughly 300,000 customers daily using approximately 2,700 trains. As of 2011, PR has nearly 13,000 employees. [1] http://www.przewozyregionalne.pl/ [2] http://www.pkp.pl/

This survey data report presents an analysis of data collected during 2005, 2007 and 2010 surveys conducted on representative, nationwide samples as part of the ‘Working Poles’ research project a team from the Warsaw School of Economics and commissioned by social partners. The surveys reflected public opinion on selected features of employment relations, labour law observance, working conditions and the response to the economic crisis. While the state of working conditions improved significantly (especially between 2005 and 2007), trends in labour law observance proved contradictory, and employment relations, approached from the institutional perspective, deteriorated.

Trade unions in Poland are still the largest voluntary organisations in the country, yet they enjoy only a moderate degree of influence on everyday labour relations. The unionisation rate is low, and so is collective bargaining coverage.

In the early 1990s, the Polish economy saw a huge wave of denationalisation. One of the paths of direct privatisation envisaged by the Act of privatisation and commercialisation of state-owned enterprises (hereafter called ‘the Act’) was so-called ‘employee leasing’. The law allowed for companies that were to undergo privatisation to become ‘employee companies’, with shares owned by employees. Those companies were given the right to lease the enterprise.

Calls for reforms to the pensions system began in 2009 when women born in 1949 retired. They were the first pensioners insured in the two-tier system composed of the Social Security Fund (/Fundusz Ubezpieczeń Społecznych/, FUS), which covers state pensions, and the Open Pensions Fund (/Otwarte Fundusze Emerytalne/, OFE), which covers capital pensions. The benefits paid to the women were unsatisfactory. The national campaign resulted in the government initiative to amend the Act on retirement pensions and other benefits from the Social Insurance Fund. The amendment would mean that those born between 1949 and 1968, who are bound to the two-tier system, would be allowed to exit the OFE and have all of their contributions collected by the FUS. The bill has been warmly received by the trade unions.

In July 2009, the Polish parliament adopted an anti-crisis legislative package consisting of two bills: the amended Personal Income Tax Act, allowing for tax exemptions on allowances paid by trade unions and on vouchers convertible to goods or services, and the Act on alleviation of economic crisis effects on employees and employers (*PL0909019I* [1]). The anti-crisis laws are set to expire at the end of 2011. The anti-crisis act contains a number of support measures, the most significant of which comprises subsidising the remuneration costs of employees working part time or remaining idle due to a temporary halt of operations at companies in ‘temporary financial difficulties’, defined as a ‘decrease in sales by at least 25% experienced over three consecutive months after 1 July 2008’. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/mixed-reaction-to-anti-crisis-legislation

In 2005, the European Commission [1] grew impatient with the persistent public financial support channelled to Polish shipyards and initiated an investigation regarding the legality of this state aid. Subsequently, the Commission repeatedly requested the Polish government to draw up a restructuring [2] programme, without noticeable effect. The Commission made clear – from early to mid 2008 – that Poland should not hope for any extension of the imminent deadline for submission of the restructuring programme. Thus, the government twice presented such a programme, with the principal element of each version being based on privatisation of both shipyard companies in the northern city of Gdynia and the northwestern city of Szczecin. Neither of the programmes submitted, however, was positively reviewed by the European Commission. Ultimately, in November 2008, the Commission ruled that the state aid transferred to the Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards was illegal and requested that the beneficiaries repay it (*PL0807029I* [3]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/european-commission [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/restructuring [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/polish-shipyards-flounder-as-eu-demands-return-of-state-aid

The autonomous agreement on combating negative effects of the economic slowdown reached by the peak national social partners in March 2009 received public praise and was considered a success of social dialogue [1]. The social partners’ anti-crisis package was then presented to the government, which was to incorporate the agreement’s provisions into draft legislation in order to submit it to the parliament (Sejm) for adoption (*PL0906019I* [2]). In early July, the government put forward two draft bills, which were subsequently passed into law without much delay – despite trade union concerns (*PL0907019I* [3]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/social-dialogue [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/government-accepts-anti-crisis-package-submitted-by-social-partners [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/trade-unions-threaten-to-abandon-tripartite-dialogue

The need for the conclusion of a social pact in Poland has been emphasised since the turn of the century. Two major attempts to conclude such a pact were made in 2003 and 2006, but without much success. Talks have not advanced beyond the stage of negotiations in the tripartite social dialogue [1] bodies. The only case of a national-level social pact adopted after 1989 was the ‘Pact on state-owned enterprises undergoing transformation’ signed in 1993, which paved the way for the establishment of the Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Affairs (Trójstronna Komisja ds. Społeczno Gospodarczych, TK [2]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/social-dialogue [2] http://www.dialog.gov.pl/komisja_trojstronna