Beata Rutkowska

Admissibility of disclosing to trade unions information on the amount of an employee’s remuneration in the common employment model (polemical article)

In doctrine and jurisprudence, the prevailing view is that employers are not obliged to disclose to trade unions, at their request and within the framework of trade union monitoring of compliance with the law, information on employee wages. According to the 1993 resolution of the panel of seven judges of the Supreme Court, an employer may disclose such information, but only with the employee’s consent. Otherwise, the personal right of the person performing the work may be infringed. Such an opinion is not convincing. It stands in clear opposition to the law in force. It also leads to depriving the trade union organisation of the right to carry out systemic control of the employer’s compliance with the principle of equal remuneration for equal work or work of equal value (Art. 18(3c) of the Labour Code). 

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The number of members as the requirement for acquiring the rights of an enterprise trade union organization after the amendment to the Trade Unions Act of the year 2018

The Constitutional Tribunal stated in June 2015 that Art. 2(1) of the Trade Unions Act, to the extent, in which it restricts rights to form and join trade unions of workers not mentioned in this Article is  inconsistent with the Constitution. The Trade Unions Act was amended in July 2018 to adapt it to the new legal situation after the judgement of the Constitutional Tribunal. Among the amended provisions were those of Art. 251 regulating the conditions conferring the rights of an enterprise trade union organization on a trade union organization. The subject of the present study is comparing the previous and new regulations of the aforementioned Article and assessing changes introduced in this scope, as well as establishing, whether the amendments are sufficient in the context of a significant number of micro employers operating in the labour market.  

ASJC: 3308

JEL: K31

The paper attempts to answer the question of whether periods of daily and weekly rest provided for in Art. 132 and 133 of the Labour Code Act of 26 June 1974 are to be accounted for with reference to the employment relationship, employer, or employee. Determinations in this respect were made by analysing various situations occurring in practice—employment of an employee with one employer on the basis of one employment relationship, simultaneous employment of an employee in several employment relationships with that employer, and parallel employment of an employee by more than one employer. This takes into account the need to ensure that the employee is afforded rest periods within strictly defined legal limits, as well as the nature of the right to daily and weekly rest and the purposes of this right.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Social labour inspection – imperfecti on of regulation

The aim of the present study is drawing attention to a problem of social labour inspection. The author analyzes three problematic issues in the present legal state: organisation of social labour inspection, election of social labour inspectors and number of social labour inspectors.

Any legislation must be assessed from the point of view of its practicability. Legislation and the application of law are closely correlated. The law must be the law in action. Based on this assumption, the overall assessment of the statutory model of the powers vested in a trade union organization is largely negative. The legislator did not provide effective tools, i.e. legal mechanisms enabling the functioning of company trade union organizations at the majority of Polish employers, and thus did not create the legal conditions for the functioning of proper and intended relations between the entities of collective employment relationships. This results, among other things, from a failure to adapt trade union legislation to the dynamically changing socio-economic conditions and needs of the modern labour market. Lack of the legislator’s activity in this respect raises concerns as to the future of the trade union movement in Poland. 

ASJC: 3308

JEL: K31