Czarzasty, Jan

With the continuing economic slowdown precipitated by the global economic crisis, the Polish government was forced to amend the national budget and reduce its expenditure plans for 2009. Subsequently, the Ministry of Defence (Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej, MON [1]) announced that the funds allocated to modernising the army – including the purchase of new equipment – would amount to only PLN 2.2 billion (€485 million as at 3 June 2009) instead of PLN 4.7 billion (€1 billion), as planned initially. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration (Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji, MSWiA [2]) also lost a considerable share of its originally planned budget. [1] http://www.mon.gov.pl [2] http://www.mswia.gov.pl

In late 2008, Polish legislators made two consecutive amendments to the Labour Code. The parliament introduced significant alterations to the labour law regarding vital issues such as equal opportunities [1] in employment, maternity leave [2], parental leave [3], workplace safety and social benefits at workplace level. The first series of amendments were passed into legislation in November 2008, while the second series of modifications were adopted in December. In both cases, the new regulations came into effect in January 2009. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/equal-opportunities [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/maternity-leave [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/parental-leave

Poland’s education system is regarded as being oriented towards general skills, and the institutional links connecting schools and workplaces are relatively weak. Furthermore, since the early 1990s, the number of students in vocational schools has been declining: from over 800,000 persons in the school year 1990/1991 to some 240,000 students in 2005/2006. This development is combined with a diminishing number of vocational schools, from more than 2,500 schools in 1990/1991 to some 1,800 schools in 2005/2006.

Following Poland’s entry to the EU in May 2004, restructuring and, ultimately, privatisation of the shipbuilding industry remains one of the key issues facing the Polish government with regard to heavy industry. Due to the interaction of economic and political factors, the restructuring of Polish shipyards was not concluded at the time of the country’s EU accession. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Polish shipyard industry received a considerable amount of national state funding. Due to the protracted restructuring process, state support continued to be granted after Poland joined the EU. As an EU Member State, Poland must now comply with European regulations on public aid; accordingly, continued support to the shipyards after 2004 was made conditional on the Polish government’s preparation of a restructuring and privatisation programme and downsizing of output capacity. If this condition is not fulfilled, European regulations state that the enterprises concerned must return all of the state aid they received after Poland’s accession to the EU.

In recent years, Poland’s economy has been growing at a fast rate. The economic boom has been reflected in shrinking unemployment and rising wage pressure. Not surprisingly, the latter trend has affected the national minimum wage: in the autumn of 2007, on the eve of parliamentary elections, the government concluded a separate agreement with the Independent and Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy Solidarność, NSZZ Solidarność [1]), stipulating that the gross minimum monthly wage would be raised by almost 13%, from PLN 936 (about €279 as at 3 September 2008) to PLN 1,126 (€336) as of 1 January 2008 (*PL0709019I* [2]). Prior to this move by the government, the Tripartite Commission had failed to reach agreement on increasing the minimum wage, and as a result the decision was put into the government’s hands, in accordance with the Minimum Wage Act. [1] http://www.solidarnosc.org.pl [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/union-signs-agreement-to-raise-minimum-wage-and-increase-public-sector-pay

The Opel plant in Gliwice in the Upper Silesia region of southern Poland, which is part of the General Motors (GM [1]) group, ranks among the largest automobile manufacturing plants in Poland, and it is also one of the major units of its parent company in Europe. GM’s Polish subsidiary was established in 1991, originally as Opel Polska; the production facilities in Gliwice launched operations in 1998, initially as an assembly plant, and gradually developed into a major manufacturing plant with an annual output of over 180,000 vehicles of the Opel [2] brand and more than 3,200 staff on the payroll in 2006. [1] http://www.gm.com/ [2] http://www.opel.com.pl/site/index.html

In August 2007, the Polish Labour Code was amended in order to introduce telework into the Polish legal framework by adding a new chapter entitled ‘Employment in the form of telework’. Article 67/5 Paragraph 1 of the Labour Code defines telework as follows:

In the past few years, tripartite social dialogue in Poland has had a difficult road to follow. In the autumn of 2007, it is facing yet another obstacle – one of the major national trade unions, namely the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union ‘Solidarity’(Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy ‘Solidarność’, NSZZ Solidarność [1]), concluded a separate agreement with the government outside of the Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Affairs (Trójstronna Komisja ds. Społeczno-Gospodarczych). Under this new agreement, the following provisions apply: [1] http://www.solidarnosc.org.pl

Under current regulations, the statutory retirement age is 65 years for men and 60 years for women. However, certain professional groups are entitled to early retirement schemes. Such privileges are mainly granted to employees performing jobs in hazardous working conditions. The main professions eligible for early retirement schemes under various legislative acts include teachers, miners, railway workers, police officers, soldiers and firefighters.

Following Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004, the country has experienced a long period of economic prosperity. For example, Poland’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate reached almost 6% in 2006, while unemployment dropped from almost 20% in April 2004 to 13% in May 2007. Not surprisingly, the steady improvement in the country’s economic situation has prompted a new wave of pay demands. Economic experts describe the employees’ pay demands as legitimate, pointing to the fact that in the years prior to the current phase of economic growth, labour productivity grew at a much faster pace than pay. This is reflected by a study by the Institute of Labour and Social Issues (Instytut Pracy i Spraw Socjalnych, IPiSS [1]), which finds that labour productivity increased by 28.5%, while average pay levels rose by only 7.3% over the period 2001 to 2005. However, as long as unemployment levels remained high, employers were able to largely disregard workers’ pay demands. Conversely, once the labour market situation began to improve, the capacity of the ‘unemployment factor’ to limit pay demands gradually diminished. [1] http://www.ipiss.com.pl