Background. Enterprise and industry restructuring is a multi-aspect and complex issue. Considering a large number of decisions accompanying restructuring and the variety of structural transformations, it is also a process burdened with numerous, often conjugate risk sources. The difficult situation of the Polish hard coal mining industry constitutes an additional application premise to undertake the subject study of the effects of employment restructuring in mining enterprises.
Research aims. The main purpose of this article is to determine the scale of achievement of the basic goals of employment restructuring in the two largest mining enterprises that consist of 24 hard coal mines.
Method. The research period includes the years 2005-2012 and encompasses the time when two subsequent government industrial restructuring programs were introduced: Reforms in the hard coal mining industry in the years 2003-2006 as well as Activity strategy of the hard coal mining industry in Poland in the years 2007-2015. Research concerning the level and efficiency changes was conducted individually for each mine that was part of the particular mining enterprises. When identifying the effects of the completed employment restructuring, a comparison was made related to the unit production costs in the individual mines, with the average purchase price of 1 GJ by the commercial power industry in the years 2005-2012, determining at the same time a group of mines that are periodically or permanently economically ineffective.
Key findings. The effects of evolutionary employment restructuring, in the form of efficiency and increased effectiveness, were obtained only in a few of the 24 hard coal mines examined. A failure of restructuring was induced by an ignorance of sector risk, connected with an inflow of cheaper and better quality imported coal under the European Union’s, decarbonization policy, as well as a lack of flexibility in adjusting to changes in the environment, caused by a lack of understanding and acceptance of the necessity for employment restructuring among employees and trade unions.

Background. Enterprise and industry restructuring is a multi-aspect and complex issue. Considering a large number of decisions accompanying restructuring and the variety of structural transformations, it is also a process burdened with numerous, often conjugate risk sources. The difficult situation of the Polish hard coal mining industry constitutes an additional application premise to undertake the subject study of the effects of employment restructuring in mining enterprises.
Research aims. The main purpose of this article is to determine the scale of achievement of the basic goals of employment restructuring in the two largest mining enterprises that consist of 24 hard coal mines.
Method. The research period includes the years 2005-2012 and encompasses the time when two subsequent government industrial restructuring programs were introduced: Reforms in the hard coal mining industry in the years 2003-2006 as well as Activity strategy of the hard coal mining industry in Poland in the years 2007-2015. Research concerning the level and efficiency changes was conducted individually for each mine that was part of the particular mining enterprises. When identifying the effects of the completed employment restructuring, a comparison was made related to the unit production costs in the individual mines, with the average purchase price of 1 GJ by the commercial power industry in the years 2005-2012, determining at the same time a group of mines that are periodically or permanently economically ineffective.
Key findings. The effects of evolutionary employment restructuring, in the form of efficiency and increased effectiveness, were obtained only in a few of the 24 hard coal mines examined. A failure of restructuring was induced by an ignorance of sector risk, connected with an inflow of cheaper and better quality imported coal under the European Union’s, decarbonization policy, as well as a lack of flexibility in adjusting to changes in the environment, caused by a lack of understanding and acceptance of the necessity for employment restructuring among employees and trade unions.