The act on parental supplementary benefit passed on 31 January 2019 guarantees, as it is commonly believed, a pension for mothers who have raised at least four children and due to that fact have not undertaken employment or have given it up. A thorough analysis of the provisions of the act, however, presents the parental supplementary benefit in a completely different light. All circumstances that accompanied the adoption of the act, the way its assumptions were presented, the time when work on it was ongoing and the real motives of its introduction indicate that it was passed for purely populist reasons in the pre-election period. And all of that was done to win the support of the largest possible number of people. This article presents the results of a thorough analysis of that issue, which enable to draw such daring conclusions.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The competence of the European Union in the field of labour law is limited to the support, complementation and coordination of the activities of the Member States in the exhaustive areas of labour law. The diversity of national definition of legal concepts used in EU challenges the harmonisation of national legal orders and their gradual convergence. The lack of consistency between Member States in respect of determination of who qualifies as a “worker” in national legal orders lead to the differences between Member States, as regards the application of the minimum standards to the same category of persons performing a paid job. This can undermine the objectives pursued by directives and may jeopardise their effectiveness. A uniform concept of “worker” has not yet been developed at the EU level. The starting point for any discussion about the concept of “worker” in EU law is the definition of “worker” provided for the principle of free movement of workers enshrined in Art. 45 of TFEU. Given the non-discriminatory purpose of the concept of worker under the principle of free movement of workers, this article is going to consider whether this concept has the potential for broader protection of workers in the EU.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31 

The protection of employment relationship of trade union activists in the view of the amendment of 5 July 2018 to the Trade Unions Act and international labour law standards

The subject of the study is the protection of employment relations of trade unionists after the amendment of 5 July 2018 to the Trade Unions Act. The amendment has introduced many significant changes. Especially, protection were granted to large groups of trade unionists who are not employees, in particular self-employed workers and those providing work under civil law. The article analyses the objective and subjective scope of protection, claims for breach of protection and procedural aspect of protection. The author focuses her attention on assessing current legal protection of employees’ representatives in the light of international labour law standards. 

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31, K33

The article presents an analysis of right to compensation for overtime in the civil service in polish law, especially under the European Social Charter. In Poland some civil servants are only entitled to time off equal to the number of overtime hours and not, as the European Committee on Social Rights has stated, to increased remuneration or additional time off in return for additional work. It is important especially in view of the motion to the Constitutional Tribunal to declare Art. 97 §§ 6–8 of the Act on Civil Service to be inconsistent with the European Social Charter. The article contains an analysis of legal regulations in the context of court rulings and literature.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Judicial verification of the termination of employment relations in the sphere of public administration on the example of the National Center for Agricultural Support

The construction of the expiry of an employment relationship excludes the use of institutions provided for in the Labor Code for the termination of employment relationships, as it is a lex specialis in relation to the provisions of this Code. This mechanism results in the termination of the employment relationship, in principle, without the labor court being able to check the reasons for it. The labor court, in such conditions, may, however, examine not only whether the expiration of the employment contract by the employer did not violate the law, but also, and perhaps above all, the circumstances of not offering the employee working conditions and pay for a further period and assess it also in context of social coexistence rules. 

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The amendment of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure of 4 July 2019 (Dz.U. 2019, item 1469) introduced several changes to the Polish system of procedural law. In this light, the question arises, whether these changes significantly affect the status of workers who pursue their claims before labour courts. The subject of the paper is only the procedural aspect.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31