Legal Eye: Women's rights at work

On one hand, we've come a long way from the 1950s, when a professional woman was suspected of taking a job away from a man. On the other hand, while women now hold high-ranking positions in business and government, it still remains the exception, and not the rule. 

Constitutionally equal

For decades, progressive governments have enacted legislation to protect the rights of women in the workplace, both for building a career on a level playing field and also balancing the demands of working and rearing a family.

Long before Poland's accession to the EU, the Polish Constitution guaranteed equal rights for women. Poland should be particularly proud that it surpasses the United States in this respect. Attempts to enact an equal rights amendment to the US Constitution failed in the 1970s. 

Non-discrimination legislation

The Labor Code contains several provisions on non-discrimination in the work place. These are sound, but fairly tame principles, such as equality of men and women holding the same position, equal pay for similar work, and a prohibition on discrimination in employment and in hiring and firing. The Labor Code also prohibits mobbing and sexual molestation.

The defenses to a claim of discrimination are ample. They include not hiring because of lack of required qualifications, objective reasons for firing, applying safety measures with respect to women of child-bearing age, using length of service as a criterion, and other affirmative-action policies.

To bring a claim for discrimination, a woman needs to prove that she was treated less advantageously because of her sex. At this point, the employer must show that the main reasons for the decision consisted of objective criteria.

The punishments for an employer that has discriminated are, by and large, modest. A woman may sue for monetary damages. Criminal culpability, however, only arises in extreme situations, such as if the employer severely and deliberately breached a woman's rights or forced her to provide sexual favors.

Family matters

The current government has touted its "pro-family" policies. Beyond the issue of the pork-barrel baby bonus, it has embarked on legislation to, in particular, provide longer maternity leaves. 

Currently, women are granted 16 weeks of paid maternity leave. Women may shorten this leave to 14 weeks and allow the father to take the remaining leave. This satisfies the EU requirement that women have at least 14 weeks of paid maternity leave. Polish law also grants two extra paid vacation days to women with a child under 14 years old. Additionally, women with a child under four years old have the right to take up to three years of unpaid childcare leave.

A current draft bill would extend the maternity leave to at least 26 weeks, starting in 2007. You could debate extensively the effect of this legislation: will it actually benefit women or simply create an additional disincentive for employers to hire younger women?

Personally, as a working mother, I'm concerned about the impact on women starting their careers.  However, a number of other EU member states offer at least 26 weeks of maternity leave, including Great Britain.

Judith Gliniecki is the managing partner of Rymar and Partners.