Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 83rd ILC session (1996)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Poland (Ratification: 1957)

The Committee notes the Government's report.

Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Convention. With reference to its previous comments on the effective and dissuasive nature of measures to be taken to ensure adequate protection against acts of anti-union discrimination both at the time of taking up employment and in the course of employment, and against acts of interference by employers in workers' trade union activities, the Committee once again requests the Government to indicate in its next report whether the present system of fixed-amount fines has been replaced by a system of variable-amount fines (penalties) determined on a daily basis taking account of the seriousness of the offence and the offenders' income as the Government stated in a previous report.

Article 4. Recalling that approval of collective agreements is compatible with Article 4 provided that it may be refused only on the grounds of a procedural flaw or failure to conform to the minimum standards laid down by general labour legislation, the Committee requests the Government to indicate whether in practice during the period covered by the report the Minister of Labour or the Labour Inspector have refused to register a collective agreement and, if so, to indicate in what circumstances and in what sector (section 24111 of Chapter XI of the Labour Code, 1994).

Articles 4 and 6. Stressing that under the Convention only public servants engaged in the administration of the State may be excluded from the scope of the Convention, the Committee requests the Government to supply detailed information on the scope of section 24122 of the Code which provides that an enterprise collective agreement may be concluded for workers, with the exception of workers employed in the state budgetary sphere. The Committee recalls that it has always established a distinction between, on the one hand, officials whose activities involve essentially administration of the State (officials in the ministries of government bodies and their subsidiaries) who may be excluded from the scope of the Convention and, on the other, all other persons employed by the Government, public enterprises and public institutions (teachers, postal workers, railway workers in particular) who should be able to enjoy the guarantees of the Convention.