Polish Deputy Labor Minister: one-off benefit also crucial for 2017 policy

The Deputy Minister of Labor for Poland Marcin Zielenecki indicated that the Labour Law Codification Committee (KKPP) will have to increase dialogue with trade unions and non-represented workers if the country is to successfully implement not only the lowered retirement age, but also facilitate its plan to hand out cash amounts to those retiring. Zielenecki was speaking with the Polish press in a conference on Thursday. "We have all sectors of the economy in which workers are not represented [by a trade union]. There is a mass of different questions [regarding those who have] temporary employment, whether it is found in the code or not. Should [workers with a civil contract] be addressed in the [KKPP prepared] code, and to what extent?" said Zielenecki. He also said that the recovery of social dialogue would be important. "In Poland, the dialogue is very weak, especially at the level of capital [...] we must look to revitalize the dialogue [so far as] the codes of collective and individual rights allow," he stressed. Changes to the law include a one-off addition to pensions of less than PLN 2,000, determined by income indexation. For example, those with benefits of less than PLN 1,000 will receive one-off payments (of about PLN 400) up to eight times greater than those receiving pensions between PLN 1,500 and 2,000. Zielenecki added that the second part of the law, the reduction of the retirement age to 65 for men and to 60 for women, would require multilateral efforts. He stressed that although the President is directly responsible for the project, the Ministry of Labour is also responsible for many of the tasks involved in its implementation.