Conflict resurfaces at Wrocławska Jedynka

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In late April 2003, it appeared that a dispute at Wrocławska Jedynka, a financially troubled Polish industrial construction company, had been resolved by an agreement on the severance terms for redundant workers. However, during May conflict resurfaced as doubts emerged over the funding of the severance payments, and negotiations over the issue broke down.

Over January-April 2004, a serious industrial conflict hit Wrocławska Jedynka, a financially troubled industrial construction company (PL0405106F). The dispute started when management called for pay cuts in order to save jobs, triggering a strike, and worsened when the company dismissed striking workers. A deal on severance terms was finally reached after intervention by regional and national social dialogue institutions. Thus in late April 2004, a framework agreement was concluded between the company's directors and the in-house structures and regional leadership of the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy, NSZZ Solidarność), with the officials of the Lower Silesia regional (voivodship) government officiating at the signing ceremony.

One of the conditions of the settlement was that Wrocławska Jedynka would receive a credit facility from the Ministry of the Treasury (Ministerstwo Skarbu Państwa, MSP) earmarked for severance payments to its redundant personnel (the money was to be earmarked in view of the fact that the company owes some PLN 60 million to 500 different creditors). The Ministry tentatively agreed to extend a loan of PLN 1.5 million. Discussions over the envisaged loan were initially conducted with Zbigniew Kaniewski, the State Treasury minister. However, the cabinet led by Prime Minister Leszek Miller resigned on 2 May. On his final day in office, Mr Kaniewski - without explaining the reasons for his actions - refused to sign the documents authorising the loan to Wrocławska Jedynka. The company's directors reacted to this development by sending a letter to the Lower Silesia regional authorities, expressing fears as to whether a final settlement could now be reached with the redundant employees before the labour court. The situation was further complicated on account of a PLN 3 million penalty imposed on Wrocławska Jedynka by the regional marshall’s office for failure to abide by investment schedules and deadlines.

On 21 May, a representative of the company's board of directors proposed that the deadline for payment of severance benefits to 168 redundant employees be moved back to 30 June. While the trade union agreed to this proposal, it suggested that the directors were stalling for time, and also that they had not availed themselves of all available means of influencing the State Treasury and the regional authorities (which have hinted that the penalty imposed might be repealed). At the same time, Wrocławska Jedynka’s directors kept the atmosphere tense by recalling (including in a letter addressed to the regional authorities) the events of January 2004 - eg an occupation of the company's headquarters by strikers - which led to an exacerbation of the dispute. They also accused the chair of the company NSZZ Solidarność section of seeking to obtain illicit private gains.

On 21 May, there was another round of discussions over the settlement between the redundant employees and the management of Wrocławska Jedynka, but these were soon cut short when the lawyer representing the company’s directors announced that his powers of attorney had been revoked. Reacting to the negotiations being broken off, trade union activists staged a protest outside the regional authority offices on 24 May. Senior officials of the Lower Silesia regional government met the demonstrators, and they notified Jerzy Hausner, the Minister of the Economy, Labour and Social Policy, and Jacek Socha, the Minister of the Treasury (in the cabinet of new Prime Minister Marek Belka, which has yet to obtain the endorsement of parliament) that the situation at Wrocławska Jedynka was deteriorating. Speaking at a session of the tripartite Regional Social Dialogue Commission (Wojewódzka Komisja Dialogu Społecznego, WKDS) (PL0307105F) on 24 May, Stanisław Łopatowski, the head of the regional government, expressed the conviction that part of the framework agreement reached at Wrocławska Jedynka could be implemented without the benefit of the Ministry of the Treasury loan. The greatest importance, he stated, attached to withdrawal by the company’s directors from the wording of the redundancy notices served on the employees (these cite article 52 of the Labour Code, which refers to dismissal on disciplinary grounds) - such a change would enable the redundant employees to receive work certificates and records on the basis of which they can seek new employment or claim unemployment benefit. If the directors of Wrocławska Jedynka fail to demonstrate goodwill on this point, Mr Łopatowski argued, this may constitute an argument in favour of a motion for their dismissal. The commission presidium proceeded to adopt a statement calling on the company’s board to implement the framework agreement by arranging a settlement.

An unexpected twist in the Wrocławska Jedynka case occurred on 28 May. During a plenary session of the Regional Social Dialogue Commission devoted to questions of social dialogue at the regional level, the chair of the employers' organisation Business Centre Club (BCC-ZP), Marek Goliszewski, announced his organisation’s willingness to extend a loan to Wrocławska Jedynka so that it can cover the severance payments for its employees.