Schoolteachers go on strike over pensions system

Following on from its earlier announcements, the Polish Teachers’ Union (ZNP) decided to proceed with a nationwide two-hour warning strike on 29 May 2007; the schools and pre-schools affected by the action opened two hours later than usual. Following the strike, ZNP met with the Minister of National Education, who promised to address the union’s key concerns.

The Polish Teachers’ Union (Związek Nauczycielstwa Polskiego, ZNP) decided to hold a warning strike following a meeting between its Chair, Sławomir Broniarz, and Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński on 23 May 2007. Mr Broniarz maintained that the prime minister did not come forward with any concrete proposals relating to the teachers’ demands, which concerned – among other issues – the extension of pre-retirement benefits to teachers, pay rises of at least 20%, increasing public spending for education and replacing the leadership of the Ministry of National Education (Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej, MEN) (PL0705019I).

Widespread support for strike action

The two-hour warning strike of 29 May involved approximately half of all schools and pre-schools around the country, although not all the teachers employed at every institution took part. This action was endorsed by the National Confederation of Parents and Parent Councils (Krajowe Porozumienie Rodziców i Rad Rodziców, KPRiRR) and, according to surveys by the press, also had the support of some 60% of the Polish public.

On the afternoon of 29 May, the ZNP leadership met with one of the four deputy prime ministers, the newly appointed Przemysław Gosiewski. The talks focused on the possibility of enabling teachers to retire early at least until 2011 and on providing them with pre-retirement benefits – known as bridge benefits – in the context of the legislative package regulating pensions currently being prepared by the Polish government. This meeting was intended to serve information purposes only and, accordingly, did not bring any specific results; it did, however, open the way for further talks.

Meeting with education minister

The day after the warning strike, on 30 May, representatives of ZNP met with the deputy prime minister who also acts as Minister of National Education, Roman Giertych – whose removal from his post the trade union had demanded a few days earlier. Also in attendance were representatives of the National Education Section of the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy Solidarność, NSZZ Solidarność), which had not taken part in the ZNP protest. Minister Giertych expressed his support for the teachers’ demands concerning salaries and promised to seek a 10% pay increase for teachers in the national budget for 2008, as well as further pay increases over the coming years. The question of whether the 2008 pay rise will be adjusted for inflation was left open. The MEN proposals for the 2008 budget were to be officially submitted by June 2007– the month when the government must present a general outline of the coming year’s budget to the Tripartite Commission (Trójstronna Komisja ds. Społeczno-Gospodarczych, TK).

In the course of this meeting, it was also agreed that three working groups would be convened, each one of them bringing together two representatives each from the MEN, ZNP and the National Education Section of NSZZ Solidarność. These groups will be responsible for the following tasks:

• drawing up proposals for change in financing the educational system, including remunerations;

• changes in the educational system, including issues such as vocational training, secondary schools and pre-school education;

• teacher training.

Moreover, Minister Giertych promised to dispatch a letter to the education boards, officially notifying them that teachers who became eligible for early retirement under the Teachers’ Charter would retain their pension rights. In this context, he also promised to amend relevant provisions of the Teachers’ Charter by way of the legislative fast track.

Retirement provisions in draft act

Government representatives took this opportunity to point out that the current proposal of the legislative act regarding bridge retirement benefits for teachers born after 31 December 1948 and before 1 January 1969 actually provides for two early retirement procedures. The first provision enables women aged 55 years and men aged 60 years to retire after contributing to the pension scheme for 20 and 25 years, respectively, and after working in jobs of a ‘special nature’ for at least 15 years.

The second provision is for persons who have not joined an open retirement fund. It also allows teachers to retain their entitlement to early retirement irrespective of their age if they have met the conditions laid down in the Teachers’ Charter by 31 December 2007. In practical terms, this option also only applies to persons born before 1 January 1969 in that – following reform of the Polish pension system in 1999 – they received the option of not joining an open retirement fund. By way of clarification, it might be added here that the open retirement funds (which invest a participant’s contributions, maintaining an individual account for each one) were introduced in an attempt to decentralise and make the Polish pensions system more competitive; they are obligatory for all employed Poles born after a certain date.

Commentary

The recent thaw in relations between ZNP and MEN may be regarded as a step towards establishment of an education lobby independent of political fault lines, as called for by Minister Giertych when he spoke as a guest at the ZNP congress on 15 May 2007. This will be no easy task, however, in that it will involve some degree of reconciliation between three different political centres:

• ZNP, loosely associated with the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD);

• the right-wing League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) of which Minister Giertych is a prominent member;

• the National Education Section of NSZZ Solidarity, which has an unwritten alliance with the biggest party in the governing coalition – Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS).

A lobby with such a pedigree, provided that it can be assembled in the first place, would stand little chance of surviving any major conflict between the main political forces. Thus, more disputes within the teaching community as well as in its external relations seem inevitable.

Jacek Sroka, Institute of Public Affairs (ISP)