Postal workers engage in strike action over pay

Since 13 November 2006, employees of Poczta Polska, the Polish national postal service, have been involved in protest action over pay. Strike action was called by postal delivery workers in the northern city of Gdansk, who were soon joined by other postal workers from various locations across the country. On 27 November 2006, negotiations commenced between the workforce and the company management, with the support of professional mediators.

Background to conflict

The conflict at Poczta Polska is considered to have been escalating for a number of years. One of the reasons why these tensions flared into open conflict is due to the fact that, just before the first round of local elections on 12 November 2006, Poczta Polska offered a 35% discount to electoral committees wishing to have their leaflets delivered to the mailboxes of voters. Many electoral committees jumped at this offer, leaving the postal delivery workers to carry considerably heavier bags for the same pay.

Postal workers in the city of Gdansk, in northern Poland, organised the first strike action in mid-November 2006, which was suspended after the signature of an agreement with the management of Poczta Polska three days later. However, the management cancelled the agreement soon after, stating that they were having second thoughts concerning the promised pay increases for postal delivery workers. The Gdansk postal authorities argued that if these increases were introduced, it would cost Poczta Polska some PLN 340 million (€87.5 million as at 18 January 2007) per year, which would be too heavy a financial burden for the company. In light of this development, the postal workers resumed their protest on 17 November 2006. By that time, several thousand postal workers in Poland were already on strike; by 18 November 2006, the number of participants in the strike had increased to 25,000 workers, including most of the postal delivery workers.

On the evening of 18 November 2006, the management of Poczta Polska announced that it would meet all the striking workers’ demands (see below) except those calling for pay increases. With regard to pay increases, Poczta Polska’s directors offered to increase the minimum monthly gross wage of postal delivery workers from PLN 900 (€232) to PLN 1,100 (€283) while they asked to suspend the strike for the duration of negotiations. The workers on strike, however, rejected this offer.

Union demands and dispute resolution

On 17 November 2006, the Inter-Union Protest and Strike Committee formally commenced a collective dispute with the employer. The following eight trade unions are represented on this committee:

• Multi-employer Union Organisation of the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity (Miedzyzakladowa Organizacja Zwiazkowa Niezalezny Samorzadny Zwiazek Zawodowy ‘Solidarnosc’, NSZZ Solidarnosc);

• Free Trade Union of Postal Workers (Wolny Zwiazek Zawodowy Pracowników Poczty, WZZPP);

• Federation of the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union of Communications Workers (Federacja NSZZ Pracowników Lacznosci);

• Independent Self-Governing Trade Union of Poczta Polska Postal workers (NSZZ Listonoszy Poczty Polskiej);

• Forum National Trade Union (Ogólnokrajowy Zwiazek Zawodowy ‘Forum’);

• Postal Guard National Trade Union (Ogólnopolski Zwiazek Zawodowy ‘Straz Pocztowa’);

• Kontra Trade Union (Zwiazek Zawodowy ‘Kontra’);

• Multi-employer Free Trade Union of Poczta Polska Employees (Miedzyzakladowy Wolny Zwiazek Zawodowy Pracowników Poczty Polskiej, WZZPP).

On 21 November 2006, trade union officials and the Postal delivery workers’ Protest Committee of Warsaw embarked on talks with the Poczta Polska directors in Warsaw, referring – among other points of discussion – to the management’s offer of three days previously. The protesters, or rather spokespersons for postal workers throughout the country, made the following demands:

• a monthly increase in the minimum pay of postal delivery workers to PLN 1,500 (about €388) before tax;

• pay increases for other postal workers averaging PLN 300 (€77) before tax;

• strict adherence to an eight-hour working day for postal delivery workers;

• implementation of a social package which would include job guarantees or compensation in the event of redundancy;

• an overhaul of work organisation ‘so that the bags of postal delivery workers become lighter’;

• extra remuneration for postal delivery workers delivering advertising material.

First round of negotiations

On 27 November 2006, the Inter-Union Protest and Strike Committee and the management of Poczta Polska began the first national-level talks to resolve the dispute. The committee presented its list of demands, including those mentioned, but the talks ended inconclusively, with each party accusing the other of walking out. The real cause of the deadlock may be due to the fact that the parties were unable to reach a compromise concerning the pay increases for Poczta Polska employees. The company’s directors offered monthly pay increases averaging PLN 80 (about €20) per full-time worker; the unions, meanwhile, called for a base salary increase of PLN 150 (€38) and for a minimum monthly salary of PLN 1,300 (€335). In keeping with the official procedures, the parties signed a document setting out their differences of opinion on this point.

Given that the negotiations – involving two mediators from the list held at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (Ministerstwo Pracy i Polityki Spolecznej, MPiPS) – had not produced the expected outcome, the trade unions decided to proceed to the next stage of the collective dispute. Representatives of NSZZ Solidarnosc did not rule out a referendum concerning a general strike, and called on the other postal trade unions to join it in organising such a referendum.

However, the talks to date had yielded a compromise for 13 out of the 15 trade union demands, with no decision being made on the final two pay demands. Against this background, one of the mediators involved in the talks, Michal Kuszyk, who is also the Vice-president of the Polska Miedz Employers’ Union (Zwiazek Pracodawców ‘Polska Miedz’, ZP ‘PM’), invited the General Director of Poczta Polska, Zbigniew Niezgoda, and representatives of the Inter-Union Protest and Strike Committee to begin another round of negotiations. These were to be held at the Andrzej Baczkowski Social Partnership Centre in Warsaw, where Tripartite Commission meetings take place.

Second round of negotiations

On 4 December 2006, the next round of talks was held. During the meetings, the directors of Poczta Polska presented a number of possible ways to distribute a total of PLN 190 million (about €48 million) among postal workers, with PLN 120 million (€30 million) earmarked for pay increases and PLN 70 million (€18 million) for additional benefits in the form of coupons. Once again, the employer proposed a pay increase lower than that demanded by the trade unions – this time by an average of PLN 110 (€28) per month. The company directors argued that, guided by a desire to extend the largest remuneration increases to the lowest earners at Poczta Polska, they would grant average monthly pay increases of PLN 160 (€41) to some 27% of the workforce, leaving each of the remaining full-time employees with an average increase of PLN 60 (€15). Under another scenario, the 14,500 Poczta Polska employees with the lowest pay packages would receive pay increases of PLN 192 (€49), while the other employees could expect a monthly increase of their gross wage of PLN 69 (€17).

The trade unions declined all of these offers, demanding that the directors of Poczta Polska agree to increase the amount set aside for pay increases or that the parties agree to differ, signing a formal document to that effect. No agreement was reached, and the mediator proposed that another meeting be held on 6 December 2006; the mediators promised to use the intervening days to review Poczta Polska’s financial situation and to provide this information to the trade unions.

Third round of negotiations

The Minister of Transport, Jerzy Polaczek, attended the beginning of the talks held on 6 December at the seat of the Social Partnership Centre and appealed to both parties to reach a compromise within a week. At the same time, Minister Polaczek warned that the prolonged dispute could lead to the loss of key customers of Poczta Polska, as well as a loss of prestige and respect for the company among the general public. Furthermore, Mr Polaczek criticised the previous ruling cabinet, conceding that negotiations from 2002 to 2005 had been a waste of time as far as Poczta Polska was concerned, as those workers at middle and senior management level received pay increases while the workers at lower levels of the organisation did not, and an attempt at restructuring the enterprise failed.

By way of introduction to the talks, the mediators presented the promised assessment of Poczta Polska’s financial situation and of the possibilities for pay increases. The company’s directors then put forward another proposal for increasing pay and other benefits in 2006 and 2007, based on a sum of PLN 190 million (€49 million) in cash and in coupons redeemable for goods. The General Director of the company, Mr Niezgoda, presented six different ways of distributing these funds; most of the union representatives, however, dismissed these proposals as unacceptable, reiterating their demand for a minimum wage of PLN 1,300 and for a PLN 150 pay increase for all workers. In effect, the only agreement reached was that the new proposal by the management – after editing and the addition of further details – would be brought directly before Poczta Polska employees. This time around, the management refused to sign a protocol of differences.

The mediators proposed that new talks be held on 13 December 2006 and both parties agreed. The Inter-Union Protest and Strike Committee undertook to present feedback from employees on the proposal made by the company management.

Situation after third stage of mediation

Some of the union activists believe that the mediation process has been brought to a halt with the refusal of the Poczta Polska management to sign the protocol of differences, although they reaffirmed their continued readiness to negotiate. The management took a different view, arguing that the mediation stage of the collective dispute procedure is still underway. NSZZ Solidarnosc set about preparing a referendum concerning a general strike; all Poczta Polska employees were to have their say in the matter by 8 December 2006. Taking into account various procedural factors, a general strike could not be called before 18 December 2006.

Commentary

Polish postal delivery workers, as well as other postal workers who supported them in the dispute, are not the only occupational group demanding an increase in what are, in some instances, embarrassingly low wages. In general, Polish employees are expressing their discontent with remuneration levels in the national economy and with increased determination. The Polish economy, meanwhile, is doing increasingly well, maintaining a stable annual growth rate of 5%–5.8% of gross domestic product (GDP), creating new jobs, and increasing industrial production and investments. At the same time, unskilled labourers as well as highly skilled specialists are migrating to other countries in search of work. Raising the minimum wage in Poland could be one possible solution to prevent high levels of labour migration. Such an increase may be introduced soon, since the Polish government is promising to discontinue the consultative procedure to determine minimum pay and to set it at a higher level than what would be possible if employer representatives had their say in the process. Employers, for their part, argue that increasing employee remuneration would be feasible if the government took steps to decrease payroll taxes, thus reducing the cost of labour.

Jacek Sroka, Institute of Public Affairs (ISP)