Threat to Polish union funding

Poland’s governing party, PO, has produced a report which claims that unions cost too much and have too many privileges (see Labour Research, August 2013).

The report argues that the current rules on trade union representation are too generous. These give a union the right to have one representative completely freed from normal duties once there are 150 union members in the company (two if there are more than 500, and more if the number of union members exceeds 1,000), as well as providing protection against dismissal.

With several unions present in major companies, the result, the report claims, is that in coal company JSW with 30,000 employees there are 75 full-time trade union representatives, and in the copper company KGHM, with 19,000, there are 43.

The government is reported to have prepared draft legislation which would cut trade union rights, and the new report seems intended to shift public opinion against the unions, and so create the climate in which the legislation can be introduced.

The unions have condemned the report and the plans, which they see as revenge for their action against government policies, planned for 11 to 14 September.