Court rules against RPP members zl. 300,000 wage claims

On Friday the Warsaw Labour Court ruled that six members of the Monetary Policy Council (RPP) will not receive three years' back wages equivalent to those of the deputy govnor of the National Bank of Poland which they had been demanding. If they had won, they would have received zl. 300,000 each. Judge Malgorzata Micorek-Wagner said that since the RPP members are not employees of the NBP they have no right to demand such wages. The RPP members are very likely to appeal against the decision. (Rzeczpospolita, Jan. 25-26, C1, A2) A.Z. European Council to vote report on gov't treatment of the media On Tuesday, Parliamentarians in the European Council will vote on a report which accuses the government of dominating public television, amending the law on radio and television in a way that prohibits capital concentration in the media, and "legal tormenting" of the independent media. The document includes statistics of programmes broadcasted by public television (TVP) between July and September 2002, according to which the Parliamentary coalition had the lion's share of air time. Its politicians appeared for a total exceeding 15 hours, while the opposition only appeared on the screens for slightly over two and a hours. In theory, if the Council decides that the freedom of speech is threatened, it could suspend Poland's accession to the EU. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 21) M.M.