Documents Czarzasty, Jan 23 results

"This article investigates how cross-border mobility in the European shipbuilding industry affected the employment security of workers on standard and non-standard contracts in sending and receiving countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on qualitative findings from Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland and Romania, where shipbuilding production is integrated into transnational networks, leading to high cross-border mobility. Despite restrictions and a reduction of shipbuilding activities, the east-west labour mobility continued during the pandemic contributing to employment security in the east and addressing labour shortages in the west. The findings show that the type of employment contract, national employment protections and workers' mobility status (e.g. posted or self-initiated) influence workers' vulnerability. Specifically, the mobile workers with the most secure employment were also better protected by government measures than those in less secure employment during the pandemic, resulting in hierarchised groups of cross-border labour. Workers engaging in circular migration across Europe were the least protected."

"This study overviews the impacts of the twin (digital and green) transition on the labour market and the workplace. It explores the role and presents good practice examples of employee involvement, both via social dialogue and collective bargaining and direct co-decision making, in shaping the transition at the macro and micro levels. Finally, the study summarises the main legislative and policy measures adopted at the EU level to foster employee involvement."

"Poland's shipbuilding sector has been undergoing turbulent change for more than 30 years. Once a leading manufacturing sector, it went through an initial transformation shock in the 1990s, experienced a short recovery, then fell into a severe crisis following EU enlargement and the 2008 global financial crisis, only to start to regain its composure in the 2010s. The impacts of Covid-19 and subsequent crises have not been overly negative, largely exacerbating risks related to high inflation and rising energy prices. Polish shipyards have managed to develop new market and product strategies, mainly exploring particular niches and taking advantage of new trends emerging in the global industry as a result of technological innovation (such as offshore windmills) or demand for specialised, tailor-made solutions. The sector experienced the effects of outward migration in the early years of EU membership, with workers leaving in search of employment in Western shipyards. The evolution of the domestic labour market, in which the combined effects of steady economic growth, post-accession emigration, falling interest among labour market entrants in joining the industry, and general demographic tendencies (societal ‘aging' and the fall in the proportion of people of working age) meant that growing demand came up against a falling labour supply. Labour shortages have been met by labour immigration, mainly from Ukraine. Shipbuilding has come to depend on foreign workers. At the CRIST shipyard foreign workers (third-country citizens) constitute nearly 40 per cent of the workforce, while at Remontowa Shipbuilding it is about 10 per cent. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 did not trigger an increase in labour supply, as most of the newest wave of incoming Ukrainian migrants (war refugees) are women and minors. The negative impact of inflation on real wages might potentially translate into renewed interest in the ‘exit' option among Polish workers, seeking work (and higher incomes) abroad in more affluent EU/EEA countries."

"Occupational Welfare (OW) is a peripheral phenomenon in Poland. Following the collapse of authoritarian state socialism in 1989, the ‘welfare-providing workplace' – a workplace whose scope of responsibilities included welfare provision to employees (in which process trade unions played a vital role) – disappeared. From 1990 onwards, OW has been evolving in a largely decentralized and uncoordinated manner. The most significant type of OW are company social funds (zak?adowe fundusze ?wiadcze? socjalnych, ZF?S), which must be established for most employers (but can be legally avoided), followed by optional schemes related to healthcare provision, and group casualty insurance.

This limited spread of occupational schemes is confirmed by an analysis of pensions and unemployment benefits. Despite the introduction of a three pillar pensions system in 1999, occupational pensions (the 3rd pillar) have grown to cover only a tiny share of the workforce (slightly over 3%). Between 2011 and 2014 the pensions system was largely dismantled: first by limiting the role of the 2nd pillar (mandatory private), secondly by raising the retirement age (to 67), and finally, by the de facto ‘nationalisation' of the vast majority of the assets in the 2nd pillar (transferred to the 1st pillar, i.e. mandatory public). In early 2016, the possibility of returning to the former retirement age (separately defined for women and men) is under debate. Unemployment protection is very limited, no unemployment insurance exists, and unemployment benefits are not income-related. "

"In this article we examine the industrial relations practices of three large European food retailers when they transfer the hypermarket format to other countries. We ask, first, how industrial relations in hypermarkets differ from those in other food retailing outlets. Second, we examine how far the approach characteristic of each company's country-of-origin (Germany, France and the UK) shapes the practices adopted elsewhere. Third, we ask how they respond to the specific industrial relations systems of each host country (Turkey, Poland, Ireland and Spain)."

"In this article, we examine the role of institutional context, organizational structures and trade union strategies in tempering membership decline in the number of trade unions in Poland. Empirical data include membership statistics collected for NSZZ Solidarno?? and 54 affiliates of two other largest trade union confederations (OPZZ and FZZ) supplemented by semi-structured interviews with union leaders. In a decentralized collective bargaining system in Poland, a centralized trade union confederation (NSZZ Solidarno??) can more easily shift resources to efficiently organize workers than decentralized confederations, OPZZ and FZZ, whose development is mostly driven by competing trade unions representing narrower occupational groups. In conclusion, this observation is put in a broader context of the debates about trade union renewal in Eastern Europe."

"The article looks at the evolution and institutional characteristics of Polish trade unions after 1989 in a pre-1989 historical context. It highlights the role of path-dependency in assessing labour's capacity to adapt to the new economic, political and social environment which emerged following the radical institutional change. Based on field work conducted in 2009 and 2010, the paper focuses on the dynamics in organisational structure of the three nation-wide trade union organisations (Solidarity, OPZZ and FZZ), and adds a concise description of national industrial relations, emphasizing their hybrid and foggy nature."