Poland’s teachers 


Teachers in Poland are calling for a meeting with the prime minister to protest against their pay increase for 2018. 


The government has announced that teachers’ pay will go up by 5.0% in April. This is above the current rate of inflation, which was rising by 2.1% in December 2017.


However, the main teachers’ union ZNP points out that, the increase is being made in April rather than January, which means that it only worth 3.75% over 12 months. And part of the increase is being paid for through cuts in teachers’ housing allowances. 


Teachers in Poland are poorly paid. The latest official figures, from 2014, show that secondary school teachers were paid only 6% more than overall average earnings, while primary school teachers earned just 2% above the average.