700 workers to lose their jobs at Polaniec power plant

The Tadeusz Kosciuszko Power Plant in Polaniec plans to lay off 700 employees, with the aim of reducing its total staff to 1,700 workers. The plant, which is the major supplier of power in Southeast Poland, has offered employees euro 30,000 to accept voluntary redundancy. In February last year, union representatives signed a social packet with the major investor, the Tractabel company of Belgium, which guaranteed the workers a minimum of 10 years of employment. Above that the employees received a privatization bonus and an option to buy shares. The region in which the power plant is located has a high unemployment rate, so the laid-off workers have little chance of finding alternative work. Tractabel, which owns a 25% stake in the Tadeusz Kosciuszko Power Plant, has the option of acquiring a majority stake after five years. Tractabel is committed to increasing the plant's capital by euro 61.6 million within two years and to carry out a development program worth almost euro 340 million. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) P.W.