Polish unions differ on crisis strategy

Poland’s two largest union confederations, Solidarnosc and OPZZ, have taken very different approaches to their government’s latest proposals to tackle the coronavirus crisis, known as Shield 4.0.

The measures, which cover a wide range of issues, also make temporary changes to employment rights. They include:

• employers can now require employees to take up to 30 days accumulated holiday at a time of the employer’s choosing;

• redundancy compensation is limited to a maximum of 26,000 Polish złotys (around £5,200) where the employer can show a decline in turnover of 25% over a month, or 15% over two months; and

• there are new rules for home working, with the employer able to end home working at any time.

Piotr Ostrowski, vice-president of OPZZ, described the limits on redundancy compensation as “scandalous”, and said that “after almost three months of the pandemic all the government has to offer …. is more cuts, sacrifices and belt-tightening”.

But Marek Lewandowski, the spokesperson for Solidarnosc, believes these fears are exaggerated and that the final outcome of Shield 4.0 will be much less dramatic than its opponents suggest.