Employment of officers in customs and tax administration after the reform

The article presents the legal regulations concerning the officers of the former Customs Service adopted by the legislator on the occasion of the reformed customs and tax administration and the establishment of the National Tax Administration. The institution of terminating the service relations of officers by law was introduced, as well as transforming the service relations into contractual relations as a result of offering the officer further work in the structures of this administration and accepting this proposal by him. Problems with interpreting these solutions were visible in the varied jurisprudence of administrative courts as well as common courts. In order to understand these difficulties, some of the justifications of the judgments have been presented more broadly. In line with these considerations, the thesis is justified that in recent years the legislator has increasingly resorted to this type of solutions and introduced institutions of termination of employment relations by law, and their cause is not “exceptional, special circumstances justified by the state system reform,” which was emphasized by the Constitutional Tribunal, only reforms related to organizational transformations in public administration. This is viewed as the means of replacing public administration staff.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The right to a general strike. Considerations de lege lata and de lege ferenda

The right to political (general, universal) strike is undoubtedly polycentric in nature, since in order to properly decode and interpret it, it is necessary to refer to both axiology, philosophy and national and international law, including EU law. Moreover, a political strike is in fact not only a result of axiological assumptions, accepted philosophical or doctrinal and political considerations. It manifests the state of the State and the level of democracy in terms of the struggle for the improvement of working and remuneration conditions, social sphere or public sphere.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

On the loss and recovery of the rights of a trade union organization

The provisions of the Trade Union Act of 23 May 1991 concerning the loss and regaining the rights of a company trade union organization generate numerous interpretative doubts. The author analyses issues concerning the trade union organization’s failure to comply with the obligation to provide the employer with information on the number of its members, the trade union organization’s failure to timely submit an application to the labor court with jurisdiction over the employer’s registered office to establish the number of its members as at the last day of the six-month period, and the organization’s restoration of its rights as a result of the submission of an application to establish the number of its members. The author also draws up de lege ferenda postulates concerning the clarification of specific regulations, which should result in avoiding paralysis of the legitimate exercise of trade union rights and privileges by a trade union organization.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The right to disconnect as an employees’ fundamental right

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the associated possibilities for the employers to order employees to perform their work remotely has caused the widespread perception of the employee’s right to be offline outside its working hours (also referred to as a “right to disconnect”) as a fundamental right. This article contains a synthetic analysis of the institution of remote working as the main source of threat to employees’ rights as well as considerations with regard to proposed solutions aimed at protecting the employee against such threat. On the one hand, remote work has a protective function being instrumental in safeguarding the continuity of businesses and the  employee’s workplace despite the pandemic, but on the other hand, it significantly interferes with the private sphere and may lead to violations of the regulations on working time. The European Parliament’s proposals on the right to be offline should be assessed positively, although they undoubtedly only guarantee an absolute minimum level of protection. The analysis was carried out following the formal dogmatic method also taking into account comparative tools.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Autonomous character of task-based working time of a academic teacher

Employment relationship of a academic teacher, determined by pragmatic regulations of the higher education act, demonstrates specific characteristics in various aspects, with particular focus on the aggregate of rights and obligations. This kind of reflection makes also regulation of working time to be perceived through the prism of the characteristics of the employment relationship of a academic teacher since its particular content elements determine differences in defining the task-based working time. The mechanism of implementing the system of working time, tasks of a academic teacher, and in particular regulations connected with providing the teaching obligations are essential factors in defining the autonomous character of the task-based working time system of a academic teacher.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Unemployment benefit for former officers of the uniformed services and soldiers – selected legal issues in the context of court rulings

Although the unemployment benefit is a well-established institution in the Polish legal system, which makes it possible to mitigate the material consequences of unemployment, its practical functioning sometimes encounters serious difficulties, which is illustrated by the extensive court decisions regarding various aspects of the right of former officers of the uniformed services and soldiers to that benefit. The aim of the study is to show the more important problems of interpretation and to formulate proposals of their solution.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Obligation to notify Social Security Agency about a specific work contract – improvement of the control system in the light of constitutional principles of equality, proportionality and information autonomy

The purpose of the paper is to analyze obligation to notify Social Security Agency about concluded specific work contracts, which was introduced as of 1 January 2021 in the social security system act. Firstly, the way in which the new obligation was introduced raises significant doubts. Under the guise of anti-crisis measures, a new obligation has been introduced in the Anti-Crisis Shield, which has little to do with its purpose. Secondly, the prima facie technical obligation also raises practical doubts, but more importantly, it prompts questions about its compliance with the constitutional principles of equality, proportionality and information autonomy. Fulfillment of the obligation results in transfer to the Social Security Agency of significant data on legal relationship that are – as a rule – indifferent from the perspective of the social security system, the scope of which is not determined by a statute, but by a sub-statutory act.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The issues included in the article focus on a tool ensuring compliance with provisions of the social law and labour law, as well as collective agreements (so-called cross-cutting “social clause” or horizontal clause) and more precisely on the analysis of regulations of Polish Public Procurement Law related to the requirement posed in relation to economic operators or subcontractors, concerning mandatory employment of staff under an employment relationship when they execute public procurement contracts. The regulation fulfils the protective function of the labour law, underlying the priority of employment. It was emphasized that socially responsible public procurement are inseparably connected with compliance with the provisions of the labour law, whose main aim is to protect the employee. The article also analyses selected issues concerning socially responsible public procurement and the notion of an employment relationship.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31