In search of full employment

In her first interview as the Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Self-defense's Anna Kalata speaks with the WBJ about this decision, and about what her Ministry plans to do to address the high cost of labor and the high unemployment rate.

Katarzyna Dębek: Do you think the decision to move responsibility for ZUS from your Ministry to the Prime Minister was justified?

Anna Kalata: The decision to take ZUS away from the supervision of the Labor Minister is the decision of the entire government. I'm a member of this government and as a Minister I'm going to implement its policy.

What are the priorities of the new Labor Minister - what do you consider as your most important challenges?

First of all, lowering the burdens imposed on employees with the lowest incomes.  Second, activating the socially excluded and groups of people whose situation on the labor market is particularly difficult. Third, making the public employment services more accessible and efficient. I will also pay special attention to the right use of EU funds to assure their full absorption.

Labor costs are very often blamed for the high unemployment rate in Poland. Do you agree?

Contrary to popular belief, some 82 percent of the overall operating costs in service and production enterprises are material and organizational costs, while the rest is related to labor costs. When investors look for a production plant location, they don't consider labor costs only. With the current technological advancement of production processes, labor costs are no more the parameters determining these types of decisions. Nowadays, its work efficiency, not costs, that influence most foreign investors' assessment.

If not labor costs, then what are the causes of such a high unemployment rate and how can it be lowered?

The main cause for the current situation is the disregard for the costs of systemic transformation.

In Polish reality it is the poorest part of society that was hit hardest by the results of this transformation. For the last 16 years no resolute measures were taken to take the burden of transformation from the poorest part of the society.

In a market economy one can and even should conduct a policy of full employment. I'm deeply convinced that I will use all available measures and complement them with new instruments of social policy in order to make the achievement of this goal possible.