It is 2025 and there is no end to the debate on the Polish labour marketplace and its pathologies. This is despite the crucial shift in media discourse, which is much more visible present than before to the position of workers' rights, or alternatively to regular violations of them. At the same time, it is impossible to hide that the post-2015 period represents a fresh chapter on our home marketplace in that there has been an incomparable increase in wages – above all the minimum wage, which inevitably had a greater impact on the situation of the working class in Poland than the redistributive projects of the governments of Beata Szydło and Mateusz Morawiecki – its way besides valuable. The another side of the medal is, of course, the fact that this period ended with a large increase in the cost of living, although for another reasons than those about which liberals are tirelessly talking. In any case, the situation in the labour marketplace inactive needs to be assessed by contradictions and paradoxes that do not support clear conclusions.
Currently, as for many years, erstwhile we hear about the "employee market", it is hard to combine all media narratives about improving the situation together with the experience of the lion's part of Polish workers, constantly talking about exceptionally mediocre quality of jobs in Poland: continuous work and very unfavourable relations in companies, especially on the line of the boss – employed.
Our native literature is already full of texts describing this problem in an alarming tone. Most of these are press articles, which, in addition to wage issues and the abuse of non-coded forms of employment, increasingly item the problem of working conditions and mobbing. However, it is inactive hard to have an equally cross-cutting and comprehensive description of this issue than a collection of texts by Mark Szymaniak published collectively under the title “Doings. Reports on work’. It has been 7 years since the publication of the book, but it is inactive worth reading, due to the fact that it opens its eyes in an highly suggestive way – the amendment, of course, that the wages themselves have increased in relation to the rates described by the author. A fewer bucks an hr for the bodyguard – that's fortunately the past. However, the state of employment relations remains dramatic.
U Szymaniaka is first of all given a rather diverse scenery of the planet of employed labour in Poland, and the episodes consisting of it combine 1 clear common denominator: the vile way of treating employees by the heads and owners of companies.
The scope of perspectives spreads between the point of view of Ukrainian cleaning female employed in black in Warsaw by a rich sadist, and stories from elite IT industries. Permanent underpaid workers and the cynical usage of stronger bargaining position by the employer are elements of all cases described in the ‘Worked’. Admittedly, this is not the item of the book against the background of many another reporting materials on the work topics that have been created over the years. Here, however, all or almost all experiences collected in the book, self-narrations, are surrounded by reflections of a socio-political nature. They are primarily meant to emphasize the systemic nature of the tribulation experienced – erstwhile it comes to the disappointment of capitalism, the "free market", or erstwhile there are comparisons between wellness and social safety systems in Poland and Western European countries.
Yes, this Western Europe, which has been undergoing systematic "polonisation" for 40 years, or neoliberalisation, gradually bringing its labour markets into line with Nadwiślanie standards. The point is that after decades of this process, the Polish emigrant inactive has a chance to work there in conditions of greater stability, receiving earnings from which he is able to postpone simple savings. But let us not be charming, this image is not black and white: Poles frequently fall abroad into a trap of working black and deficiency of any rights. Unfortunately, due to cultural alienation and ignorance of the language, they sometimes fall victim to gross exploitation from their own countrymen – paradoxically due to the fact that they seem to be the only certain point of attachment. specified cases are besides described in item in the book for their shaping mechanisms.
The "doings" are expected to be an attempt, as it seems, to take overall account of labour marketplace issues in Poland, so the publication does not coincide with various cases – it is besides a work on the stage, and on garbage trucks, well paid and for hungry wages, rather prestigious and despised. There are even stories of a tiny shopkeeper and an independent broker. However, there are fundamental similarities, which consist of the leitmotiva of the full book, and at the same time fundamental problems of the area of the labour marketplace in Poland.
In particular, there are cases where employees are burdened with obligations that do not include their contracts, imposing paid or free overtime, and virtually waiting for work without remuneration by knowingly delaying payments indefinitely.
The second seems peculiarly outrageous if, as described by Marek Szymaniak, he is present in the 3rd sector, where specified a chief justifies the anticipation that an worker to whom he has a clear legal work works “for an idea”. There is simply a lot in the book about pushing people to outsourcing, coupled with the unlawful usage of "flexible forms of employment", which even deprives them of their right to leave, although this is simply a subject already developed by the press to the ground. There is besides a shocking case of sexual harassment treated as a "office norm".
Systemic sources of pathology indicate, among others, a chapter depicting the character of Mr.Henry, a tiny shopkeeper who, as a drowning man, must grasp various razors in order to last the attack of global trade networks, which origin havoc in local economies. This is simply a well described phenomenon of "high cost of low prices" – but described abroad. In Poland it was the author of the “Made” who addressed them in this book.
In the chapter devoted to Toyota’s Silesian mill we learn about a different kind of correctness.
The rate of work being turned up to the level of absurdity, a standard strategy aimed at punishing employees with wage cuts, dehumanized relationships, prepared for taking L4, tracking employees outside the plant – a "normal" corporate nightmare.
However, it is interesting that, according to veterans of this factory, all these practices developed after full management of the mill was taken over by Poles from the Japanese. The only nipponese in the company, the president himself, seems to virtually know nothing, due to the fact that it is locked in a sealed information cocoon woven by the Polish management staff. This is how globalisation led to a degradation of advanced standards, which Toyota was erstwhile arrogant of. Today, the mill uses the practice of involving workers in management processes, but only seemingly, treating it as another manipulation to strengthen control over them.
The reading “Made” makes us reflect that after more than 3 decades after the fall of the Polish People's Republic and the introduction of the marketplace economy, it is hard present to interpret pathologies as “the legacy of communism”.
It's a legacy much older. The employment relations in Poland have amazingly many post-feudal features. Presidents and owners of companies frequently behave not like business partners, but like nobles from the series “1670”, waiting for absolute obedience, gratitude and loyalty going far beyond the framework of employment relations. “Be thankful that you have a occupation at all, due to the fact that if you don’t like it, then...” – specified a suggestion, straight or not, appears in different variants in almost all communicative collected by Szymaniak.
Postfeudalism in Polish, or neofolk in practice
Especially striking in the stories collected by Szymaniak is how much the worker relations in Polish companies match a farm model. Today, there is frequently talk of a “people's return” in Poland, that is, an increase in interest in the importance of the state and the enslavement of peasants in our history. However, this small translates into knowing of modern times.
However, 10 years ago prof. Janusz Hryniewicz in his book “Poland against the background of historical divisions of the European space” defined “neofolwark” as a model of management characterized by hierarchy, authoritarianism, distrust and this treatment of employees. In “Made” we see these qualities at all step. The scale of the humiliation faced by Polish workers, the situation in which an effort to exercise their own rights is treated as an attack on the sacred right of property, brings to head the serfdom. So are we dealing with cultural sources of this depressing phenomenon?
Between the state and capitalism – the labour scenery in Poland
First of all, we have a gap between the provisions of labour law and reality. Poland, at least on paper, has a comparatively extended law protecting workers.
The Labour Code regulates working time, overtime, leave, wellness and safety at work and many another aspects of employment relations. Szymaniak shows, however, that these provisions frequently stay a dead letter.
Yes, as part of the problem, it can be considered an atmosphere of intimidation that forces submission and at least partially interacts with the intellectual baggage of the farm culture. However, the systemic problem we are seeing here is not just a question of people's attitude to the rules themselves, but, above all, the effectiveness of their enforcement by existing institutions. The State Labour Inspectorate is chronically underfunded and does not have adequate tools to effectively control compliance with labour law in hundreds of thousands of Polish companies. Trade unions, which could service as guardian of labour rights, are absent or besides weak in many industries to have a real impact on working conditions.
The state of affairs so has more to do with the economical model itself and its organization strategy than with culture itself. Over 30 years ago, it was decided that economical relations and the planet of work would look a certain way. They explain that, too. “The Done”, specifically the last chapter of the book – a conversation with Prof. Andrzej Szahaj, which is an effort to take a more academic approach to the issues raised in the earlier reports.
Thirty years of systemic transformation led to the improvement of a strategy in which maximization of profits became an overarching value, frequently at the expense of the basic needs and dignity of workers.
“The Done” is besides a communicative about the systemic failure of Polish capitalism, which was expected to bring prosperity and dignity, and alternatively became a origin of uncertainty, stress and exploitation for many. It is peculiarly painful that even in sectors considered to be ‘modern’ and ‘perspective’, specified as IT and financial services, the same mechanisms of exploitation are seen as in conventional sectors of the economy.
The characters of Szymaniak's book frequently feel powerless against the power of capital and marketplace logic. Their stories are not just stories of individual problems, but a diagnosis of a deep crisis strategy in which a man was reduced to the function of mode in a device generating profit.
Szymaniak shows how the neoliberal communicative of "economic freedom" and "flexibility of the labour market" in practice frequently means the freedom of the employer to exploit and flexibility as a deficiency of any warrant of employment stability. The way we talk and compose in the media about these issues has changed in fresh years. However, another example of deregulation in political life and further immunity of the most greedy corporations shows where we are actually located. According to economists Paweł Bukowski and Jakub Sawulski, in the decades since 1989, Poland has become 1 of the countries most marked by inequality in Europe.
Workers' council – an unused opportunity?
In this context, it is worth considering the function that workers' councils could play in tackling the pathologies described by Szymaniak and a more general systemic change. In accordance with the Act of 2006 on informing and consulting employees, staff councils are bodies representing the crew, entitled to receive information and consult the employer on business matters.
In theory, the staff council was to be an crucial part of the democratisation of labour relations in Poland and the implementation of EU Directive 2002/14/EC. In practice, they face many obstacles and their possible remains mostly unused.
Unfortunately, following a fast increase in the number of councils after 2006. The number of worker councils in Poland is steadily decreasing – from around 3400 in 2007 to just a fewer 100 today. Moreover, even where advice exists, their actual impact on employers' decisions is far from sufficient. Employers frequently treat advice as a nuisance, not as a partner in dialogue. Existing regulations let business owners de facto ignore these organs. This in turn negatively affects the perception of advice by the employees themselves – they simply do not believe in their perjury.
The councils are primarily consultative, not bodies with the anticipation of questioning the employer's decision. However, this function should not be underestimated, as the access to information for workers is 1 of the key factors affecting the position of employees and their ability to negotiate.
As Mariusz Juror convinces, 1 of the national experts on staff councils, this situation requires an amendment to the law, which would, among another things, prevent the owners of companies from avoiding work towards councils. We now have a situation in which, if the word of office of the council expires and the employer does not inform the staff of the elections to the fresh one, its continued existence is actually called into question.
The councils of employees do not have legal personality or their own budget, which importantly limits their ability to act. Members of councils are protected from dismissal, but frequently exposed to another forms of force – of course from employers.
The mystery remains specified a marked decrease in the number of worker councils after an first period of fast growth. These problems may partially explain this phenomenon. Do these bodies have just not adequate origin to convince their employees? Do employers truly sabotage counsel so effectively?
Dominik Owczarek, manager of the Social Policy Programme at the Institute of Public Affairs, points to another issue. For a long time, trade unions have been mistrustful about the advice of workers by treating them as a kind of competition, although this was a poorly justified attitude. The Council has a different function than unions, which have very extended intervention powers. On the another hand, they besides endure from systemic weakness in Poland.
– Only late did trade unions realize that their attitude towards worker councils was a mistake. These institutions can actually complement each another well, says Dominik Shepherd.
At the same time, the ISP expert admits that the most serious obstacle to improving the position of councils is the sense of inadequacy among employees and a poorly developed culture of participation. So to a certain extent, we return to the problem of the farm's heritage.
The amendment of the law is surely essential if it would aid to address the organization weaknesses of the existing councils. In fact, their formal function will not be effectively fulfilled without a stronger mobilisation of workers' communities – including trade unions – for solutions specified as councils that can genuinely support people in the face of capital, balancing the corporate position in the labour marketplace and in the relations within companies.
